AltHist-A: Shall We Try Again?

[Marshal Villars]

TARGET START DATE: Wednesday, September 24

A PBEM not for the faint of heart! ;D

Looking for a group of people who want to play a PBEM with someone working with WCS on future projects, which means there will be house rules of various sorts in order to test the effects of different mechanics. It is also meant to give the players a more realistic game experience. In addition to those listed below, rules may be changed or added during game play. However, because of the limitations of modifying rules in a computer program, they will be limited to player restricting rules. That is, the house rules will be posted and players will do their best to stick to them--asking the designer for clarification where necessary, who will make final and binding decisions.

Because there are no events which take place during a PBEM game, we will assume that this is an alternate history and that the Revolution has failed and that Louis XVI is still reigning in France. The "Revolutionary" units of CoG:EE now become the "French Rebellion". An additional assumption is that Poland has managed to conclude a strong constitution and has reestablished itself as a viable political unit in eastern Europe and will thus be a player power.

The game will be 1792, advanced economy, highest glory, 5 years or until the next patch (can lengthen if we all agree by setting up the game to run the full 23 years), wellington attrition. If things happen in people's personal live's that keep them from playing a full game, then we will deal with it and find someone else. And in fact, sometimes this isn't even a disaster, as I believe this is really the only true way to create the massive policy swings that could accompany the death of a monarch, or changes in the real power sharing structure in a monarchy.

It has yet to be determined how the players will be assigned nations. But I am happy with first come-first serve. Because I am not interested in winning (as usual), but am here for 1) the experience of it, and 2) play-testing concepts and mechanics, I will be playing Poland.

Because of the nature of the additional rules system, it would be preferable if players had experience with the vanilla game to facilitate more constructive comparison and contrasting discussion and brainstorming.

House rules which will be used will be kept in running and "living" form in the second posting, just below.

We will try to get a 48 hour turn around on turns. Major diplomatic crisis can be allowed to go for up to 72 hours. But no longer than that please. If you will be longer at any time, please let us know with a posting in this forum. If you need to quit because of personal reasons (or conflicts with the REAL world) let us know instead of just disappearing. We'll be cool with it. I promise. [:D]

CURRENT POSITIONS TAKEN:
1. FRANCE: Mus
2. BRITAIN: Terje439
3. SPAIN: Iron Warrior
4. PRUSSIA: Montesaurus
5. AUSTRIA: Randomizer
6. RUSSIA: Anthropoid
7. OTTOMANS: Vaalen
8. POLAND: Marshal Villars

9. Invasion planning records keeper: Gil R.

[Marshal Villars]

AltHist House Rules
Should there be any question about the interpretation of these house rules, Marshal Villars will make a quick and final decision so as not to allow the game to drag on.

RULES SUMMARY/PLAYER AID CARD:

1.0 Definitions
Defines a few terms in the other rules, including, "home province", "conquered province", "occupied province", and "yellow card".
2.0 Setup/Special
Requires that Austria and Prussia send a cease fire request to France on the first turn of the game and that France accept it. Also requires that Austria and Prussia void their alliance with each other as soon as they are at peace with France.
3.0 Protectorate Abuse Prevention
Prevents the transfer of whole protectorates or even portions of protectorates to other players at any time. Exceptions include several Spanish and Austrian territories at the beginning of the game and the regions of Wurzburg, Salzburg, Malta, Palatinate, Kleves, Berg, Malta, Corfu. See rules for details on these exceptions.
4.0 Increased Difficulty of Amphibious Operations
Limits the number of troops at sea for any given nation (see rule for details). Limits the number of troops a player can land in an enemy controlled province (see rules for details). Requires that players wishing to land multiple units per turn in enemy held provinces "plan" these invasions three to four turns in advance with the sending of a carefully worded email to our records keeper, Gil (see rules for details). Prevents troops from being given a landing order when their ships are in bad weather. Finally, the rule lays out a big Picardy-Kent-English Channel exception to all of this.
5.0 Quick Surrender Prevention
Stipulates that the earliest a nation may put in a surrender order to any nation which had declared war on it be in the fourth month of hostilities between those nations. The war may not end earlier than this--even by arrangement. That is, once a war occurs, it must run four months before the players can agree to end it.
6.0 Surrender Knock Out Rule
Once you have surrendered to another country, you may not declare war on ANY other nation (major or minor) for the next 18 months without that player's express written consent.
7.0 Peace Treaty Changes
When dictating peace terms: 1) home provinces (those with ONLY the player's flag in them) now cost twice as much to take (see 7.1 for a list of errors made in CoG:EE and reclassification of several provinces in Russia, Prussia, Austria, Poland, and Britain), 2) Leaders now cost three times as much to remove, 3) You can now force other players to liberate protectorates anywhere on the map, 4) You can force other players to create protectorates with their own lands and even force their liberation. This process is facilitated with a special treaty mechanism/procedure outlined in 7.5 and 7.6.
8.0 Neutral Territory Violation
When surrendering to a player, you have 4 months to remove your forces from his land and then you may not enter an order to violate his neutrality for a full two months after the end of the enforced peace. Players accepting a surrender must also vacate the loser's lands within 4 months and may not enter an order to violate his neutrality for a full two months following the end of the enforced peace. The only exceptions occur if players have a peace treaty term/regular treaty term which allows for such neutrality violations. 3 months after the end of any enforced peace, neutrality violation is governed strictly by vanilla.
9.0 Declarations of War on Nations Whose Lands You Occupy
Prevents you from entering a declaration of war on any player whose lands you occupy within the first three months of an enforced peace between you. However, if he has units on your lands, even the 3 month limit no longer applies. Additionally, no one may ever declare war on Britain while they have troops in England/ Scotland/ Wales/ Ireland. Any player can ignore 9.0 if he NEVER declares war on a nation while he has any forces on its lands!
10.0 Forager Ability Abuse Prevention
Limits most nations to 2 irregular cavalry with forager status, plus 2 light infantry with forager status. Austria, Turkey, Poland, and Russia may have up to 8 irregular cavalry and 4 light infantry with the forager ability. Spain may also have 2 regular infantry units with forager ability (since they start the game with these). Other than this, forager status upgrades are disallowed.
20.0 Player Mistakes and Redos
Lays out some guidelines for procedures in the event of player mistakes. If a mistake is discovered more than one turn after it occurred, play continues, but there may be any number of yellow cards given out by Marshal Villars for it. Any player can call out a mistake, even if it does not affect him directly.

COMPLETE RULES
The rules presented below are the official rules as of 14:45 PM London time on September 24, 2009

Rules are in black.
Design notes are in blue.
Examples are in red.

1.0 DEFINITIONS
1.1 For the purposes of this rules document, a home province is defined as a province owned by power which has ONLY its own flag in it.
1.2 For the purposes of this rules document, a conquered province is ANY province which has a nation's own flag behind the flag of another flag.
1.3 For the purposes of this rules document, a occupied province is any province belonging to a power which another power temporarily control (it has the original owner's color in it and an additional outline inside of that of a second color.
1.4 The official date of the game is the date given in the lower left hand corner of the game display. If it says "October 1796" it IS October 1796 and they are entering orders for where they would like their units to be at the beginning of the November 1796 turn.
1.5 The Yellow Card is a way for the designer to penalize players for outright and clear violations of the house rules. Each yellow card carries with it a permanent 10 glory point negative modifier which must be taken into account when comparing final scores.

2.0 SETUP/SPECIAL
DESIGN NOTE: These rules are implemented to show the failed nature of the French Revolution in the Alt-Hist scenario. The scenario assumes that Louis XVI still reigns in France and that the Prussians and Austrians are happy with this success. Additionally, due to major foreign policy problems at the time, the Prusso-Austro alliance was a very fragile one, and the game will start with it nullified as well.
2.1 The French will accept a cease fire from the Austrians and Prussians on the first turn of play, or as quickly as possible.
2.2. The Austrians and the Prussians will void their alliance as soon as they are at both peace with France as a result of 2.1, or as quickly as possible.

3.0 Protectorate Abuse Prevention
DESIGN NOTE: To experiment with preventing the abuse of protectorates which goes on in many PBEM games. The assumption is that minor nations come to you because they want protection and they want to maintain their independence. They don't come to you so that they can be traded, partitioned, and incorporated into other nations wholesale.
DESIGN NOTE: The following rules may seem a bit complicated, but just remember that your territories which are NOT protectorates are handled with normal, vanilla rules. It is ONLY when dealing with protectorate transfers that you need to refer to these rules.
3.1 PROTECTORATES MAY NEVER BE TRANSFERRED
3.1.1 Players may never transfer any protectorates--or parts of protectorates--in their possession.
3.1.2 Exception: Whenever part of the Papal States "country", the provinces of Malta, Salzburg, and Wurzburg may be transferred in any manner desired by the "owning player which is consistent with Vanilla play.
3.1.2 Exception: Whenever part of the Bavarian "country", the provinces of Palatinate, Kleves, and Berg may be transferred in any manner desired by the "owning" player which is consistent with Vanilla play.
3.1.3 Exception: At the beginning of the game, the Spanish controlled provinces in the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, and Parma may be transferred in any desired manner which is consistent with Vanilla play. Once transferred, unless immediately retransferred to Spain, each of these provinces loses any special status and is treated according to Vanilla rules, except where overruled by the House Rules for the rest of the game. Note that it if Spain develops a deal to transfer any of these provinces to another player and then immediately have them retransferred, they would become directly incorporated into Spain and in the case of the provinces called out in 3.1.3, this is completely acceptable.
3.1.4 Exception: At the beginning of the game, the Austrian controlled provinces of Lombardy, Tuscany, Flanders, and Luxembourg may be transferred in any desired manner which is consistent with Vanilla play. Once transferred, unless immediately retransferred to Austria, each of these provinces loses any special status and is treated according to Vanilla rules, except where overruled by the House Rules for the rest of the game. Note that it if Austria develops a deal to transfer any of these provinces to another player and then immediately have them retransferred, they would become directly incorporated into Austria and in the case of the provinces called out in 3.1.4, this is completely acceptable.
DESIGN NOTE: 3.1.3 and 3.1.4 are intended to give a better historical feel to the Spanish and Austrian possessions scattered throughout Europe and Italy. These possessions were lands which their royal families actually had claims to and were not protectorates in the true sense of the word.
3.1.5 Exception: Any player controlling Sweden as a protectorate may transfer any Swedish protectorate provinces in Finland according to Vanilla rules.
3.1.6 Exception: Any player controlling Denmark as a protectorate may transfer any Danish protectorate provinces in Norway according to Vanilla rules.
3.1.7 Exception: Corfu, Malta, and Gibraltar may be transferred at any time while part of any protectorate.
3.1.8 Exception: A player dictating a peace may carve any protectorate up in any manner he chooses without any consideration for 3.1 whatsoever. If it allowed in vanilla, it is allowed when dictating a peace.

3.2 EVEN EXCEPTION PROTECTORATE PROVINCES (3.1.2 to 3.1.6) MAY NOT BE TRANSFERED IF ANOTHER NATION IS AT WAR WITH YOU AND HAS TROOPS IN IT OR ADJACENT TO IT
DESIGN NOTE: Intended to prevent the "you're invading my protectorate and rather than lose it to my enemy next turn, I will transfer it to a friend NOW" ploy.
3.2.1 When considering the possible transfer of an exception protectorate province (3.1.2 to 3.1.6) to another player, you may not create a treaty to do so at any time a nation with which you are war has any troops in OR ADJACENT TO the protectorate province you are considering the transfer of. Note that if a protectorate has more than one region in it, you may not transfer any part of a protectorate if the enemy troops are adjacent to or within any portion of the "mother" protectorate.

3.3 YOUR OWN PROTECTORATES CANNOT BE INVADED WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES
DESIGN NOTE: Intended to keep people from adopting a tactic of liberating their protectorates and then attacking them without any consequences with their other protectorates.
3.3.1 If a player liberates a protectorate and declares war on it it within 12 months of the liberation date, he must liberate all of his other protectorates on the following turn. Additionally, he may not subsidize any of these newly liberated nations for a year after their liberation.

4.0 INCREASED DIFFICULTY OF AMPHIBIOUS OPERATIONS
DESIGN NOTE: To greatly increase the difficulty of pulling off amphibious operations and invasions, better representing the limitations of the time. Even though the largest invasions of the era were carried out with 40,000 troops (France's invasion of Egypt) and 35,000 troops (Britain's raid on Antwerp/Flushing--the largest British invasion fleet ever assembled to that time totalling 625 ships), I have bumped the numbers somewhat due to the larger numbers required to initiate sieges. Note that troops with an engineering upgrade will pack a significant punch and players should consider their use for invasions.
4.1 TROOP CARRYING LIMITS: Britain and France may never have more than 70,000 troops at sea. Spain may have no more than 60,000 troops at sea. All other nations may have no more than 50,000 troops at sea at any one time.
4.1.1 This means that at no time during their move planning may they have more than 70,000/60,000/50,000 troops on ships. Note that the intention of offloading troops with a disembarking order does not mean you do not have these troops on your ships. If you have 70,000/60,000/50,000 troops waiting to be offloaded, you must wait until the turn after the order is issued and the troops are on shore to load another 70,000/60,000/50,000 troops anywhere else.
4.1.2 Any nation which is allied with France or Britain increases the number of troops they may have at sea in any given turn per 4.1 by 10,000. However, this does not increase the number of troops they may land in an enemy controlled province in an invasion (4.2) or increase the number of troops they may land in friendly provinces without ports in one turn (4.5).
4.2 INVASION NUMBER LIMITS: Britain and France may never land more than 50,000 troops in an enemy controlled province in one turn. Spain may never land more than 40,000 troops in an enemy controlled province in one turn. All other nations are limited to landing no more than 30,000 troops in any enemy controlled province in one turn. Note that a British invasion fleet can appear off a targeted province with the Britain's full 70,000 man sea capacity, but it can only offload 50,000 troops in one month.
4.3 Moved
4.4 Moved
4.5 PROVINCES WITHOUT PORTS: Even if he controls the province in which he wishes to land, a player may not land more than his invasion capacity number of troops per turn in any province without a port.
Example: Russia (a British ally) wishes to land troops in a friendly controlled province without a port. Because this province has no port, he is limited to landing his invasion capacity of 30,000 there every turn. Being allied to Britain brings no advantage in this case.
4.6 INVASIONS AND INVASION PLANNING REQUIREMENTS: No nation may land multiple units in an enemy controlled province unless he has planned operations into this province at least four turns in advance. Britain is an exception and needs only three months of advance planning. An exception is that a player may always land ONE unit/division per turn at any time and anywhere on the map without planning requirements.A player can land this single unit in addition to any planned landing he has prepared per 4.6. This single unit does, however, count against a nation's amphibious capacity (see 4.2) for the turn. As soon as two or more units/divisions are desired to be landed in one location in one turn they are ALWAYS subject to the limits of 4.6. The requirements of 4.6 and its subsections apply only to situations in which the player wishes to land more than one unit/division.
Example: The British player has planned an operation in Languedoc three turns in advance. He is planning on giving an order to land 40,000 troops there the first turn he is able to. On the turn before the actual landing, he quickly decides to land one division of cavalry in Poitou, for which he needs no planning according to the exceptions called out in 4.6. On the turn of the main landing in Languedoc, in the last minute he also decides to land another division of Infantry in Genoa. Because the British player is landing no more than his 50,000 troop invasion limit on the map this turn, the move is allowed. Had the invasion of Languedoc been with 50,000 troops he would have had no extra capacity to support the simultaneous last minute troop landing in Genoa.
4.6.1 Invasion Plan Email: We will have a designated neutral member of the forums whom players planning operations will send a "preparation" email to. It will sit unopened in the record keeper's inbox unless we need confirmation of its existence. Such preparation emails must be sent out BEFORE your turn for the month is submitted to count for that month--not AFTER your turn is submitted (for example: a preparation which is to count as being initiated in May, MUST be sent out before your submit the orders for the month of May). The email should include the following text: "Beginning in May of 1796, Russia prepares for the invasion of Corfu." It's title should be only "AltHist-A May96 New (Nationality Here) Invasion Plan", allowing the record keeper to sort through them as quickly as possible when needed. After the landings, any player may ask the record keeper when he received notice of this operation. In most cases, the honor system will be used, however, any time a player feels like it he may ask the record keeper for verification. Failure to have obeyed the rules will result in a minimum of three yellow cards (30 points permanently deducted from your glory score) and a possible turn redo preventing the landing.
4.6.2 Beginning on the fourth game month after you have sent your invasion plan email (third month for Britain), you may issue the orders to land the troops in the targeted province. Where you have kept the troops until then is irrelevant as long as you have not exceeded your sea transport capacity as called out in 4.1.
Example: Sweden wishes to issue orders to land troops in enemy controlled Courland in May of 1795. To do so, they must send an invasion plan email four months in advance. Thus, if they send it out with their January turn, they will have planned in time to order a May landing (February(1), March(2), April(3), MAY(4)).
4.6.3 Note that landing troops in friendly controlled provinces, neutral provinces, provinces which you have officially occupied (i.e. your color is drawn as a second color within the original owner's color), or provinces for which you already have active landing plans (i.e. have had orders to land in place for four or more turns (three for Britain)) take no advance preparation of any kind--however, the number of troops so moved is still limited by 4.1 to 4.5.
4.6.4 You may have only one planned invasion target province at a time. As soon as you send in an order to prepare for a landing in a different province (see: 4.6.1), your old plans are scrubbed and you must wait the four months (three if Britain) to offload troops in the newly called out province.
4.6.5 Once you have invested the four months (three for Britain) in planning the invasion of a particular province, you may transport as many troops there as you like on successive turns (within the limits of your sea transport capacity and your invasion capacity). You do not need to prepare new invasion plans for an enemy controlled province just because you have already landed troops there. One set of orders is enough. After you have planned one landing and spent the time preparing, this province is permanently open as an invasion location as long as you do not change your target per 4.5.1. DESIGN NOTE: I could make it more realistic than this by cancelling the invasion plans after six months of activity, etc. But I won't. For several reasons. Including what is practical in a PBEM without programming changes. In effect, with these rules you can choose a target province and leave it active for the whole game and you would be allowed to land troops there instantly for the rest of the game.
4.6.6 As long as you have not captured the target province, you are limited to landing no more troops per turn than your invasion limit (50,000 for Britain and France, 40,000 for Spain--30,000 for all others). If you have captured the province, you may begin landing your full transport capacity per 4.1 and 4.1.2 (70,000 for Britain, France, 60,000 for Spain--50,000 for all others, plus 10,000 if allied to Britain or France).
4.6.7 Once a nation has begun the planning of an invasion of a given province, he can abort it/need not invade. There is no requirement to actually land troops. There is also no need to cancel the preparations made. Indeed, he can plan the invasion and simply have the province "on standby" for an instant invasion for the rest of the game.
4.6.8 As soon as you designate a new target province for an invasion with a preparation email (4.6.1) you may no longer order the landing of troops in the previously designated province. This effect takes place immediately.
Example: Playing as Britain, you had been prepared to invade Jutland and have carried out two troop landings there in the last two turns. Jutland has, however, not yet fallen to you, leaving it an enemy controlled province and requiring you to limit units landed per turn to your invasion capacity. However, even though Jutland has not fallen, you are confident it soon will without additional support. It is now the June 1799 turn and you have decided to prepare for an invasion of enemy held Morocco and you send out an invasion preparation email (4.6.1) immediately before you submit your June turn orders. This shift means that you MAY NOT issue any additional landing orders for Jutland with June's orders. You must now wait three turns to begin landings in Morocco.
Example: The British player would like to plan an invasion of Ancona in which his troops will be transported to the coast and would be issued the order to land in Ancona in the September 1795 turn (and will likely appear operating in the province of Ancona with the following turn's results). If the troops are to be told to debark on the September turn, the British player must plan three turns in advance for the invasion. This means that July, August, and September must be spent in preparation. Seconds BEFORE the submission of his June turn, the British player send an email to the record keeper indicating that he wishes to land troops in Ancona and is preparing an invasion. If done before his June orders are submitted, he then counts three months ahead (June (0), July (1), August (2), SEPTEMBER(3)) to determine when the order to land can be issued to any troops he has waiting off the coast of Ancona. In September, Britain orders the 50,000 troops sitting off the coast of Ancona to off-load into the province. His October turn results (those showing October in the lower left hand corner) shows that the operation went successfully and he now has zero troops on ships anywhere on the map. He immediately takes advantage of this to load another 50,000 troops in Gibraltar and sends them off to Ancona. Note that even if his initial invasion has not succeeded in capturing Ancona province that he can order these newly arriving units off the ships immediately upon their arrival because the preparation email he sent before his June turn is valid for Ancona until he sends in a new invasion preparation email--making all subsequent landings in Ancona legal. He could not divert this second group of troops to Tunisia without sending in a new invasion preparation email and waiting the three months required before he issued the offloading order--though the troops may remain at sea in the meantime.
4.6.9 INVASION EMAIL FORMAT: Any player wishing to plan for the landing of multiple units per turn in an enemy controlled province must send their "invasion preparation" email to Gil R (whose email will be made available to the group, but will not be posted here). To facilitate storage and record retrieval if needed, the format for the title of the email will be EXACTLY as follows:
ALTHIST (Nation) (Month) (Year) Invasion Plan
For instance, if in their April 1796 turn, Britain would like to commence the planning of an invasion of Brittany, the title for the email title would look exactly like this:
ALTHIST Britain April 1796 Invasion Plan
The target province is called out INSIDE of the email in the short, one line statement as follows:
On her April 1796 turn, Britain begins the planning of the invasion of Brittany.
4.7 EXCEPTIONS:
4.7.1 Players may NEVER order troops to disembark in an invasion (of enemy controlled land) when the sea zone the troops are in is a bad weather zone. Only invasions are affected in this manner. All other debarking operations are vanilla. Note that this makes it possible that someone will show up with an invasion force, disclosing their plans, and bad weather could force canceling the operation. (cool!)
4.7.2 Players using crossing arrows between bodies of land only barely separated by water (for instance in crossing from Sweden to Copenhagen) can send any number of troops desired without concern for ships or limits--just as in the regular game.
4.7.3 The Calais-Dover crossing point: If a player controls Picardy or Kent then any troops on ships in Picardy, Kent, or the English Channel region do not count against troop carrying limits (invasion or otherwise) in any way (DESIGN NOTE: Due to the short crossing distance, a tremendous variety of ships could assist in any operations here). If transported outside of the English Channel during your planning phase, these troops are immediately counted against your normal transport/invasion limits. A player attempting this strategy may not have more than his normal national limit of troops at sea outside of the Channel at any time during his movement planning! To gain any of these benefits in the Channel region, a player must control Picardy or Kent. Normal invasion planning rules and time limits are still applied (see 4.5 and 4.5.1)--but monthly invasion landing limits in Kent and Picardy (ONLY!) are ignored completely and are not counted against that landing power's normal invasion capacity in any way.
4.7.3.1 Thus, if a player controls Kent or Picardy, he need not adhere to any monthly landing limits when invading the opposite province--regardless of where the troops have come from.
4.7.3.2 Thus, if a player controls Kent or Picardy, there is in effect no limit on the number of troops he has aboard ships in the English Channel region and these troops do not count against his national transport limits, though all invasion landing limits still apply in all regions except for Kent and Picardy. When gathering troops for such invasions, he must be careful that he breaks no rules in concentrating them (namely having more than his national limit on board ships outside of the English Channel sea region.
4.7.3.3 Thus, if a player holds Kent or Picardy, he may ignore all troops on ships in the English Channel for his carrying capacity. However, the second he plans a move outside of the English Channel, he must make sure that he is under his national transport capacity for the rest of the map, or it would be an illegal move.
Example: A French player has 70,000 troops on ships in the Mediterranean headed to friendly ports in Africa. Since he also controls Picardy, he can plan an invasion of Kent by sending a planning email (4.5.1), and can load 120,000 troops on to ships in the Picardy region (do not count against any troop limits as long as he keeps them in Picardy, the Channel or Kent), move them into the English Channel, and land them in Kent without any concern for invasion number limits normally imposed. Because he has never left the Picardy region, the Channel, or the region of Kent with these units, they do not count against any of his transport limits and the units headed for Africa can remain at sea without his breaking the rules. If the player wishes to, he can keep the 120,000 men in the Channel and invade another province on the channel (other than Kent or Picardy), but he must then follow the normal rules for his national invasion landing limits.
Example: A French player could have 50,000 troops board ships in Normandy (count against his national sea capacity), 120,000 troops board ships in Picardy (do not count against his capacity per 4.7.2), and combine them in the English Channel, and assuming he has entered the invasion order (4.6.1) with sufficient advanced notice, land them all in Kent in one turn.
4.8 EXCEEDING THE LIMITS OF TRANSPORTATION: If a player ever opens his turn and discovers that he has more than his allowed national limit of troops at sea, he must immediately disband as many troops as necessary to bring it under the limit (which means that IF you are trying the English Channel strategy, you had better control the region and hope that any combat will not force your ships carrying these numbers outside of the Channel region--resulting in the demise of tens of thousands of men.

5.0 QUICK SURRENDER PREVENTION-a.k.a the "making marching to your enemy worthwhile" rule
DESIGN NOTE: Intended to prevent SUPER QUICK surrenders (defined as those being under four months) from destroying the game.
DESIGN NOTE: We will simply assume that the four month minimum state of war represents the fact that your militarized nobility who has trained their whole lives for their moment of glory will have your head on the chopping block if you rob them of their chance to prove their manhood for the test of honor and the hand of fair maidens. Poor, landless aristocracy will have nothing to do with a king who runs and hides his head in the sand. The internal pressure to preserve the nation's honor and the desire of men new to their posts to prove that they know what they are doing, and those who came before them did not, is too strong for your crown to overcome in the first four months--just as it was historically.
DESIGN NOTE: I like the fact that rule 5.1 prevents a quick white paper cease fire in friendly wars. The tactic of declaring war on a minor nation in the hopes that it will go to a friend of yours will saddle you with at least 4 months of war now.
5.1 No nation shall surrender to a nation declaring war on it in a manner preventing a state of war to exist for at least four full calendar months. Nor shall a cease fire be offered by either party before the fourth month of war.
Example: Austria declares war on Russia with their March orders. In April, turn results indicate a state of war has been initiated and currently exists between the two nations. Since four months of war must elapse, Russia must fight in April, May, June, and July. In the July turn, Russia may enter a surrender order so that in August he will be in a state of peace.
5.2 If after the war has begun other nations allied to the power declaring war also enter the war, these nations will also be forced to accept a surrender at the time the initially declaring power is forced to accept a surrender. (Note: this both makes sense and is how CoG:EE currently functions). Note: if not allied at the time of surrender to the initially declaring nation, a "late declaring" nation may continue to fight for their full four months (or, expressed differently, a defending nation must give the non-allied late declaring nation their full four months of war).
Example: France declares war on Austria in their June orders. A state of war exists in July (first month of war). In July, Russia enters order to join France in alliance and declares war on Austria. In August (second month of war) the alliance materializes and border battles have begun. In September (third month of war) fighting rages along the front. In October (fourth month of war), Austria may enter a surrender so that by November a state of peace will exist--having allowed four full calendar months of a state of war. Both France and Russia must accept the peace. Note that in this example, Russia was only at war with Austria for three months. The moral of this story is, in this case if you are Russia and want to fight longer than three months do not ally with France.
Example: France is allied to Prussia, in March's orders, France declares war on Austria. In April a state of war exists between France and Austria (first month of Fr-Au war). In May the conflict between France and Austria continues (second month of Fr-Au war) and Prussia decides to declare war on Austria AND dissolves its alliance with France. In June (third month of Fr-Au war and first month of Pr-Au war) fighting rages along the frontiers. In July (the fourth month of Fr-Au war / second month of Pr-Au war) Austria puts in her surrender to France in order to end the war by August. However, since France and Prussia are not allies when Austria surrenders to France, Prussia still has claim to four full months of war.
5.3 Wars may not be ended before four full months of hostilities in any case. Not even by arrangement (as this could screw things up for your allies on a side which is winning even if you would accept it).
5.4 Nations declaring war on others are bound by the same rules. That is, if you declare war on another nation, you must allow four months of conflict to exist before surrendering.

5.5 Note that even though this 5.0 indicates that a state of war must exist between the nations for four months, there is (and can be no) requirement for actual fighting during this time. These rules explicitly require ONLY that an official "state" of war exist in the four months called out. They in are in no way intended to regulate the intensity of the fighting (or lack of it) which takes place.
5.6 At the moment, these rules will assume that the PBEM "aggressive" policy box is working and that ONLY if this is checked will a nation declare war on another nation in case there is a neutrality violation or a protectorate which comes to them for help. As such, be careful about what your PBEM settings are! If you do not want war, do not have it checked. Players drawn into war in such a manner are also bound to abide by 5.0.
5.7 Exception: CoG:EE mechanics forcing a surrender earlier than 4 months (for instance if a nation is forced to surrender before the four months of war due to low national morale), are final and must (of course) be accepted.

6.0 SURRENDER KNOCK OUT RULE
DESIGN NOTE: Intended to prevent the, "I will surrender to you so that I can turn around and declare war on your friends, allies, and minor countries you are interested in without you being able to interfere" loophole. This creates a nice additional incentive to fight out a war instead of taking quick surrenders in situations the player may be wavering between the two choices.
6.1 Any nation which surrenders to another nation may not declare war on any other nation (major or minor) for a period of 18 months. Immediately after surrendering to any power, a surrendering nation MUST cancel all treaties requiring it to declare war on another nation in another nation's assistance. If a war is accidentally started because of a treaty commitment in the mean time, a cease fire must be offered and accepted without any hostilities occurring.
6.2 Exception: A player who has suffered a "surrender knock-out" may declare war on another nation (major or minor) if he receives written permission to do so from EACH of the powers with which he currently has an enforced peace with because of a recent surrender to them. Such permission must be received for each declaration of war the recently surrendering power would like to make.
6.3 To make this rule work, no one is ever allowed to surrender to a major power and declare war on any other power (major or minor) in the same turn's orders. IF you surrender to anyone, you simply cannot declare a war in the same turn's orders.

7.0 PEACE TREATY CHANGES
7.1 HOME PROVINCE ANNEXATION COST INCREASES
DESIGN NOTE: Intended to represent the fact that stripping a nation of its home provinces (non-conquered minor) was much more difficult than taking other provinces in any peace.
7.1.1 Whenever executing an enforced peace treaty, if a player wishes to take a surrendering nation's HOME province (a province which has ONLY one flag--the national flag of the loser) he MUST take care to count the removal of this province as DOUBLE the listed cost.
7.1.2 If a player is stripping provinces with a peace treaty, he may not take a purely home province IF there is a conquered minor province belonging to the surrendering nation which could be selected with the province picker. If the surrendering nation HAS conquered minors but they are not adjacent to the winning player, then the victorious player may take a home province.
7.1.3 For the purposes of 7.1 additional regions which are not considered to be home provinces and may be removed from their non-native owners at regular (non-doubled) CoG:EE costs:
a) Neither province in Silesia (Silesia, Breslau) is to be considered to be a Prussian home province, but they are Austrian provinces, currently conquered by Prussia (officially taken in 1742)
b) The province of West Prussia is not to be considered a Prussian home province, but it is a Polish province, currently conquered by Prussia (taken in 1772).
c) In spite of the fact that it has a conquered minor flag in it, Eastern Prussia IS a Prussian home territory for the purposes of 7.1.
d) Most Russian provinces on the eastern borders of Poland are not to be considered Russian home provinces, but are Polish provinces, currently conquered by Russia (conquered between 1667 and 1772). Complete list: Yekaterinoslav, Pryluky, Chernigov, Gomel, Vitebsk, Smolensk, Pskov, Mogilev, Bryansk, Sumy.
e) The provinces of Vinnitsa and Odessa are not to be considered home provinces of Russia, but are conquered minor provinces of the nationality Jedisan (taken from the Ottomans as recently as 1792!)
f) Livonia and Istria are not to be considered Russian home provinces, but are Swedish provinces, currently conquered by Russia (conquered between 1710 and 1721).
g) The Austrian provinces of Galicia, Lodomeria, and Bukovina are not to be considered Austrian home provinces, but are each Polish provinces (including those marked otherwise), currently conquered by Austria (taken in 1772).
h) For the purposes of rule 7.1, the provinces of Podolia, Cherkasy, Kiev, and Zhytomyr are each to be considered conquered Ukrainian provinces and are not to be considered Polish or Russian home provinces. These lands were part of the larger Cossack nation which inhabited these regions and was often prone to nasty revolts!
i) Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are not to be considered British home provinces, but conquered provinces, each of their respective nationality.

7.2 LEADER REMOVAL COST INCREASE
7.2.1 Whenever executing an enforced peace treaty, if a player wishes to force the removal of a surrendering nation's leaders, they must now pay double the cost. For leaders with three or more stars, he must pay triple the cost. To do this, they select the option as they normally would and then spend the same number of points (or slightly more if needed) on an enforced peace with a nation of the LOSING nation's choice. If you are removing a leader with three or more stars, you must spent twice as many points as the original indicated cost on an enforced peace with a nation of the LOSING nation's choice.

7.3 LIBERATION OF PROTECTORATES
7.3.1 When posting the surrender terms in the forum, a player imposing a peace may also require that a losing nation must liberate protectorates. The cost of the liberation of protectorates depends on their size. 1 province: 500 points, 2 provinces: 800 points, 3+ provinces: 1000 points. On the turn any such terms appear in a peace treaty posted in the forum, the affected nation MUST liberate the protectorates called out. The protectorate to be liberated can be anywhere on the map, and the player imposing the peace does not need to be adjacent to it for 7.3 to apply.

7.4 "LIBERATION" OF CONQUERED PROVINCES
7.4.1 When posting the surrender terms in the forum, a player imposing a peace may also require that a losing nation must create a protectorate with some of its lands which it controls.
7.4.2 At the moment, there can only be one protectorate for any nationality on the map. Meaning, for example, that regardless how the country of Bavaria is split up, only one nation holding its provinces may create a protectorate with Bavarian lands it holds--introducing serious limitations to the house rules system.
7.4.3 If there is currently no protectorate for a country in play, a player who has been surrendered to may demand that the surrendering nation create a protectorate with any number of lands which he controls of that one nationality. Single nationality protectorate formation costs are as follows: 1 province: 600 points, 2 provinces: 900 points, 3 provinces: 1200, 4 provinces: 1500, 5 provinces: 1800 points, 6+ provinces: 2000 points. Adding any provinces to this protectorate which are NOT of the core nationality costs 1000 points per province, unless the province is a home province of the losing player, in which case it is 4500 points. On the turn any such terms appear in a peace treaty posted in the forum, the affected nation MUST form the protectorate called out--or create it as quickly as possible. The protectorate to be formed can be anywhere on the map, and the player imposing the peace does not need to be adjacent to it for 7.4 to apply. When creating this protectorate, the dictating player can indicate in which province the capital should be located.
7.4.4 As an additional term, the player can dictate that the protectorate which will be formed by the surrendering nation will also be liberated in a second step. To do this, he must spend more victory points depending on the size of the protectorate created. The cost is precisely that incurred in 7.4.3, and charged again (basically double costs). Once again, the nation which has been surrendered to does not need to be adjacent to any of the provinces called out to use this.
7.4.5 If a player dictating a peace wishes to have a losing player create a protectorate of a second nationality, the process can be repeated.
7.4.6 Any protectorate formed in such a manner must have access to another country or the sea/ocean. It cannot be totally encapsulated within other lands still belonging to the former owner.
Example: Prussia surrenders to Austria. Prussia controls 5 Polish provinces which have been wholly incorporated into her realms. There is currently no Polish protectorate. Austria can force Prussia to create a protectorate with all five of these provinces (1800 points), and then force Prussia to liberate it in a second step (another 1800 points).

7.5 ADDED COSTS PROCEDURE FOR 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4
7.5.1 Since the CoG:EE peace treaty engine forces players to use every single one of the victory points given to them or else it will turn any unused portion into a stream of reparations payments, it is not possible to simply not use treaty points to simulate the effects of "doubling" costs or adding new costs for new treaty terms (for instance 7.3 and 7.4). For these reasons, when drafting a surrender treaty, the victorious nation will have to spend these "extra" points (required for the annexation of home provinces, creation of protectorates or otherwise) on an enforced peace between the surrendering nation and one or more nations of the surrendering player's choice.
Example: Spain surrenders to France. France chooses to annex one of Spain's home provinces (for which he must pay double the normal 2250 points) and France chooses to remove a leader (for which he must also pay double the normal 1250 points). Upon his surrender, Spain indicates that he chooses Sweden as his enforced peace option. When drawing up the terms, the French player must then spend 1250+2250 points on an enforced peace between Spain and Sweden in his surrender terms (representing the doubled cost for the annexation and leader removal).

7.6 POSTING OF PEACE TREATIES IN "ALTHIST-A" FORUM
7.6.1 Because of the new method for calculating the costs of various peace treaty items, there is now a MANDATORY posting of all of the imposed treaty terms AND THEIR COSTS in the game forum for all to see. The player imposing a peace must also post the number of points he was allowed to spend in the post. In effect, surrender treaty official documents are now posted in the forum with all costs being accounted for there. Any terms which can be applied with only the in game CoG:EE surrender treaty tool are then applied in that manner. If any home provinces are to be transferred from the losing nation, the losing nation must immediately draft a treaty transferring the provinces called out in the surrender document posted in the forum. An example of such a posting is provided at the end of these rules.

7.7 VANILLA TREATY POINTS CALCULATIONS
7.7.1 Note that the number of surrender points available to be spent are still determined by the CoG:EE engine.

8.0 NEUTRAL TERRITORY VIOLATION
DESIGN NOTE: While 8.0 and 9.0 may seem somewhat complex, players can remember that if they get out of a country with which they have concluded a peace within four months and avoid violating their neutrality or declaring war on them for at least four months after the enforced peace has ended--ALL rules are still vanilla! However, staying inside of the nation longer after the peace and violating its neutrality or declaring war on it shortly after the end of the enforced peace will require that you know 8.0 and 9.0. Their purpose is to prevent players from marching into a country in a situation in which that country cannot declare war on your or prepare for your attack by declaring war on you and being able to weaken your forces before they hit any objectives (i.e. War Plan Vanilla Epic Ultra) while allowing as much realistic operational flexibility as possible.
DESIGN NOTE: Many players may have noted by now that after a war, by right clicking on the territory of your previous enemy, you may select "violate neutrality" and (in vanilla CoG:EE) you can then march through their territory and there is nothing that party can do to you for the duration of the enforced peace. This will not be the case in AltHist-A as the following rules will be used to govern violations of neutrality:
DESIGN NOTE: Some players have rightly asked, "Why is this a 20 month thing instead of the standard 18 month for an enforced peace?" The reason I have extended it to 20 months (even thought it is a bit more complex) is because I wanted to take away the ability to approach your enemy under the cloak of an artificial 18 month enforced peace. I want to make sure that people have the ability to strike back at any threats which are forming on their borders. However, that doesn't mean the rule is perfect.
8.1 Neither 1) player controlled powers which have surrendered to another player controlled power NOR, 2) player controlled powers which have accepted the surrender of another player controlled power may enter any order to violate the neutrality of the lands of the opposing power for the duration of the enforced peace PLUS 2 full months (a total of 20 months) following the end of the enforced peace for any reason except to remove his forces from the opposing nation's lands by any route at the cessation of hostilities. Immediately following a surrender, 4 months will be allowed to remove forces from the lands of the opposing party. For every turn after the 4th that such a party has his forces on a the opposing player's lands without a valid lands passage treaty in place, he shall be given two yellow cards (each worth a permanent 10 point negative glory adjustment).
8.1.1 Unless there is a valid land passage treaty in place (peace treaty imposed, public treaty, or private treaty), once forces have left the lands controlled by the opposing player, neither power may enter an order to violate the other's neutrality again--until the beginning of the third month following the end of the enforced peace.
8.1.2 For the purposes of vacating troops following a surrender in 8.1, when vacating Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, or Poland, the months of November, December, January, February, and March do not count against the four month limit. This is to prevent a nation which has just defeated Russia or any other large, wintery nation, from getting stuck in its vast wastes and taking more losses marching out in a winter than it did marching in.
Example: Russia has entered the order to surrendered to Austria in July of 1795. In August of 1795 the first turn of enforced peace is in effect. Russian forces spend the next four months vacating Austrian territory. September of 1795 is the second turn of enforced peace. October of 1795 is the third turn the enforced peace is in effect. November of 1795 is the fourth turn the enforced peace is in effect. The November of 1795 turn is the final turn which Russian troops should be showing in Austria. At this point the Russian may enter his final orders to attempt to remove his forces from Austrian territory so that none are showing there when the December turn (the fifth turn of enforced peace) is opened up and examined by himself and other players.
Example: Spain has surrendered to France and the final turn of enforced peace is scheduled to be April of 1797. Spain would like to begin violating the neutrality of France as soon as possible to send troops by land to Italy. In May of 1797 (the first turn following the enforced peace) Spain may not enter orders violating French neutrality. In June of 1797 (the second turn following the enforced peace) Spain may not enter orders violating French neutrality. However, July is the third month in which the enforced peace has not been in place. Thus, Spain may now enter orders to violate French territory.
8.2 All neutrality violations of minor nations are always governed by vanilla rules.
8.3 All neutrality violations of player controlled nations which occur 3 or more months after the expiration of an enforced peace are always governed by "vanilla" rules.
8.4 If for any reason, a war is declared between two powers in the months following an enforced peace, rule 8.0 is ignored and units may, of course, move freely through each other's lands.
Example: The final turn of an enforced peace between France and Prussia was October of 1798. In November of 1798 France invades Saxony, and the Prussian player has his PBEM policy towards France set as aggressive. As a result, Prussia declares war on France. With this event, 8.0 is completely ignored for all intents and purposes.

9.0 DECLARATIONS OF WAR ON NATIONS WHOSE LANDS YOU OCCUPY
DESIGN NOTE: If you do not intend to declare war on a nation whose lands you occupy, you do not need to know this rule. If, however, you ARE interested in delcaring war on a nation WHILE your troops are on its soil, you need to know every word! You can therefore keep things simple for yourself by making sure you don't have any troops on the soil of a nation which you wish to declare war on!
9.1 During the three full turns following the end of an enforced peace, no player may enter an order declaring war on another power if he has land units inside of the target nation's home lands, protectorates, or conquered minor lands.
9.2 It is only during the first 3 months in which the state of enforced peace no longer exists that players must ask themselves the question if they are on the enemy player's lands in order to declare war. Once in the fourth in month in which the state of enforced peace no longer exists, players may issue orders to declare war on a nation without consideration for if they are on its lands or not.
Example: March 1795 is the last turn of an enforced peace between France and Prussia. April is the first month in which there is not an enforced peace between France and Prussia. May is the second month in which there is not an enforced peace between France and Prussia. June is the third month in which there is no enforced peace between France and Prussia. Until now, France would not have been allowed to enter an order to declare war on Prussia if it had had troops in Prussia. July is the FOURTH month in which there is no enforced peace between France and Prussia. At this point, France can be anywhere in Prussian territory and enter an order to declare war.
9.3 Exception: No player may EVER declare war on Britain while they have troops on British mainland OR while they have troops in Ireland.
9.4 Exception: Declarations of war triggered by PBEM policies are exceptions to rule 9.1. If a nation declares war on you while you are on its territory, there has been no violation of the rule. Be very careful about your PBEM settings!
9.5 Exception: You may issue orders for the declaration of war on another nation anytime they have units on your territory--regardless of how many months it has been since the end of an enforced peace. Whether your units are on their territory or not at that point is irrelevant.
9.6 Exception: As in 5.7, at the moment, these rules will assume that the PBEM "aggressive" policy box is working and that ONLY if this is checked will a nation declare war on another nation in case there is a neutrality violation or a protectorate which comes to them for help. As such, be careful about what your PBEM settings are! If you do not want war, do not have it checked. A declaration of war as a result of a PBEM policy box check does not violate any of the provisions of 9.0. That is, if you have someone on your land, and you don't want a war with them, do not have an aggressive stance against them!
9.7 Obviously, any wars which are declared as a result of exceptions 9.4, 9.5, or 9.6 automatically make null and void any violation of neutrality concerns and constrains per 8.0.

10.0 FORAGER ABILITY ABUSE PREVENTION
DESIGN NOTE: I am adding this rule because in our "nofrills" game it took one surrender and I converted virtually my whole army into forager troops, virtually eliminating my need for supplies of any kind. Additionally, historically it was the irregular, light cavalry from certain eastern regions of Europe (notably, Croatia, Hungary, and the Cossacks) who were exceptional foragers. The irregular infantry from these regions was also well known for it. Cavalry was much better equipped to forage and could cover larger distances to do it, as well as carry more once they found it. Note that what was key about the units from these areas was their long history of fighting in regions which had little or no supply/population. They had grown used to it. Additionally, in these areas--even if their country wasn't officially at war--there was usually ongoing border raiding and low level conflict. When absorbed into the greater European armies of the time, these units could also be counted on to not "melt away" into the countryside when they dispersed to do their foraging. A strong unit identity and sense of belonging and a major tradition of this behavior was required to prevent the major loss of man power while on "grand forages"--and these eastern units had just that. Additionally, such troops were often known for their ruthlessness and often took more than they were "allowed" to, and were at times difficult to control by their leaders. They acquired quite a reputation and many populations in Europe feared them. After their successes while fighting for the Austrians in the War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War, attempts were made in other capitals to copy them (most notably the widespread copies of the Hungarian Hussars), but the results were usually a pale imitation.
10.1 Players may only give the "forager" special ability to up to 2 irregular cavalry in their army. Additionally, players may give up to 2 light infantry units in their service this ability--but NO MORE. Other than this, units with "forager" ability are not allowed. If a player discovers that he has more than 2 irregular cavalry or more than 2 light infantry units operating with forager ability at any time, he must immediately eliminate the excess. Note that this is based largely on the honor system, but allies are encouraged to check each other's units from time to time, because if there is a mistake it will likely be an honest one.
10.2 Exception: The Austrian, Ottoman, Polish, and Russian players may have up to a TOTAL of 8 irregular cavalry AND 4 light infantry with this ability.
10.3 Exception: Spain may always have two infantry units with forager ability in addition to the above limitations.

20.0 PLAYER MISTAKES AND REDOS
20.1 If, upon opening his turn, ANYONE notices a violation of the rules by any other player--even one which does not affect them directly, they have must bring it to the attention of Marshal Villars immediately. Marshal Villars can then call for a resubmission of turn orders for the previous turn. If an error is more than one turn in the past, then we will ignore it and continue playing--however any number of yellow cards may be issued for it. If any player's secret plans are somehow exposed in the process, we will assume that spies have revealed them and they have been foiled.
20.2 If a player causes a valid redo, he will be charged with one yellow card (a permanent 10 point glory hit). In cases where Marshal Villars feels the rules were too vague and therefore impossible to understand, he can waive the yellow card.

APPENDIX
ALTHIST-A TREATY EXAMPLE (AS POSTED IN FORUM)
France surrenders to Prussia. France chooses Russia as her rule 7.5 option.
Prussia gains 9000 treaty points.
-France to pay 5% of her income to Prussia between January 1798 and January 1799. Cost: 1400 treaty points (term enforced through CoG:EE peace tool)
-France to transfer Picardy to Prussia: Cost (@2x2250): 4500 treaty points (2250 for term in peace PLUS 2250 on enforced peace between France and Russia per 7.5)
-France to remove general: Cost (@2x1250): 2500 treaty points (1250 for term in peace PLUS 1250 on enforced peace between France and Russia per 7.5)
-France to eliminate 5 ships: Cost 600 treaty points (term enforced through CoG:EE peace tool)
Total treaty points accounted for: 1400+4500+2500+600=9000. Of those 9000, 2250+1250 will be spent on an enforced peace with Russia per rule 7.5

Note that the number of surrender points available to be spent are still determined by the CoG:EE engine.

[Mus]

I would be willing to play, depending on what happens with the patch and compatibility with previous PBEM games. If the patch breaks the ongoing PBEMs I would play in this one.

I would like to play France, Russia or Prussia.

[Mus]

One of your proposed rules 6.0 will not work because the game will automatically fill any slack in VPs with reperations (Party A plays X percent of income to Party B for Y months) when you submit the surrender document.

Maybe a work around to that would be demanding the same province twice, although the inability to provide it the second time might see the defeated nation hit with an additional glory penalty.

[Marshal Villars]

Thanks for the tip. I will think about that. I would hate to have the nation receiving the cash receive be forced to create a reciprocal payment plan to zero it out. Perhaps we could just make it so a player winning would always have to select an occupied province if he has the option to select one and leave it at that.

Or we could also have the player taking the province take some other useless treaty term to represent the doubled cost of the province. I don't know what. There is a possibility that you could add a treaty term guaranteeing peace with a nation they are not likely to go to war with.

[Mus]

Reparations are % of income so would be really difficult to zero out without knowing exactly how much each country makes, plus that can change during the course of the game.

Need a more elegant solution. I will kick it around some.

[Marshal Villars]

MUS just PMed me and indicated:
"For violating neutrality I would like a house rule like this:
1. No violation of a winning power's neutrality by the loser for any reason except to withdraw forces to friendly territory at the cessation of hostilities. This includes no violation of neutrality to prosecute a war against a 3rd party. 3 months will be allowed to withdraw forces.
2. No violation of a losing power's neutrality by the winner for the purpose of gaining advantage in a subsequent war with the same power. The winner may violate neutrality for the purpose of prosecuting a war on a 3rd party. If the winner plans to initiate hostilities at the end of the 18 month enforced peace the winner's forces should be fully withdrawn before the enforce peace is expired. Under no circumstances will this rule be construed to restrain the LOSING power from initiation of hostilities at such a time as his territory is being violated for the purposes of prosecuting a war on a 3rd party by the winner.
3. In no case may forces of the initiating nation start the turn of a declaration of war or surprise attack inside the territory of the target nation.
I think that would cover all situations and still allow surprise attack to have a use and still allow limited violations of neutrality in situations where it should be allowed. If you see some loophole I am missing let me know. "

[IronWarrior]

Where's my spot? [&:][:D]

[terje439]

Sounds fun, add me if possible.
Prefered nations (still free that is) in order are:
1. Britain
2. Ottomans
3. Spain.

Terje


A question about the rules, are maybe the cost for scuttling ships a tad low in this game? If we take the last example, Preussia could demand the scuttling of 15 French ships, or about 1/3 of the French fleet. I am not too sure this sounds right tbh.

Terje

[Marshal Villars]

Terje439,

Interesting. Let me think about it.

Anyone else have any other treaty term thoughts?

-V

[terje439]

I would like something clarified about rule 4.0 (and the sub paragraphs).

So, I am fine with having to "give 4 months warning" before doing an invasion, the questions I have are;

A) When the first invasion is launched, do I then need another 4 months to land another 50k men? The reason I ask, is that the shipping would allready be assembled and ready to ship troops.
B) When an invasion warning is sent, does the player issuing the warning HAVE TO go through with the invasion or can he abort?
C) How many invasions may be declared at once? (or maybe better put, how many active "invasion plans" can a nation have at any given time?)

Terje

[Marshal Villars]

Terje,

Thanks for asking. Glad to see you're a serious player! I see that my rules as you read them were a little vague on one of these points and I have clarified and broken down the rest of the invasion rules into short bits so it is easier to call them out. Since you are Britain, I figured I would rewrite the naval invasions section for extreme clarity so that you don't have to wonder about things during the game or ask me what you can do (possibly tipping your hand in the process).

Answers to your questions:
A) After your first troops "hit the beaches" in the called out target province, you do NOT need to wait any additional time before landing troops in the target province called out in your "invasion orders email" (4.5.1). This province remains an "active" invasion province for you until you order a new target somewhere else--at which time the old location ceases to be active for you. I could have made it so that after 6 months it is no longer an active invasion site--but I have passed on this for now. So, once you have an active invasion site, bring the troops in as quickly as you can! See 4.6.5. However, remember that you can never exceed your national invasion limit per turn (for Britain this is 50,000).
B) A player can abort. There is no requirement to invade. You have made your preparations and if you wanted to land you can. See 4.6.7.
C) Any player (British or otherwise) can have only one invasion plan/site/province active at any one time. As soon as he sends in new invasion orders (per 4.5.1) it immediately cancels the old invasion orders and there can no longer be invasions carried out at the old site. See 4.6.4. Note that a new clarification/exception I added was the fact that a player can land up to one single unit in a separate and individual province whenever he likes without regard for the planning limits of 4.6. This means that you can have your main invasion going on in Poitou, and also land a cavalry unit in Picardy if you like. But there can be only one location in which you will be able to land multiple units in any given turn (and on turns you are still planning a new landing and have cancelled your invasion options on your last landing site, you will not be able to land multiple units in enemy territory anywhere, though you will still be able to land single units in enemy territory).

[Anthropoid]

Wow. This does look like a fantastic match.

But sadly, I have less and less time for gaming, and when I do play these days, I prefer it to be as mindless and un-demanding as possible. Just reading through all this exquisitely thought out stuff and then participating earnestly would be beyond my capacity right now, esp. with two ongoing PBEMs.

It really bums me out, but with all the demands of work for the foreseeable future, I just cannot commit to another PBEM right now, esp one like this that deserves real focus and diligence.

[Marshal Villars]

We just need a Spanish or British player now. Terje has indicated that he is flexible and that if a new player wants Britain, he will take Spain to get the game going.

-V

[Rugens]

Since you are shooting for more historical accuracy is it likely that anything will be done/changed to allow a more stubborn Spain and allow them to continue on with a significant portion of their country occupied? If so I would be interested in playing Spain.

[Mus]

I would propose that Rule 3.3.1 be changed to say "At any time a nation with which you are war has any troops in OR ADJACENT TO a protectorate of yours, you may not transfer it (or any portion of it) to another nation in any way. Note that this also applies to 2.1 (Spanish Special Possessions) and 2.2 (Austrian Special Possessions)."

Changes in caps.

This change in particular is needed because the 1792 scenario starts with France at war with Prussia and Austria and the immediate move of the French is to invade the Austrian Netherlands in case a cease fire is not agreed to.

Alternatively, since this is an AltHist game, we can say that the war ends by mutual ceasefire turn 1 to accomodate the fact the war was pushed by radicals intent on weakening the King, and since the revolution has failed the war no longer has a reason to continue.

Otherwise the ability to transfer and greatly increase the security of supply bases 2 provinces away from Paris is a huge advantage to the Prussian/Austrian coalition, which technically no longer has a reason to exist. Plus the transfer/retransfer provides a "window" of several turns in which the bases can not be taken, yet Austrian and Prussian forces can easily be en route to take advantage of them.

Furthermore, in generic situations it is easy to see how adjacent forces would be a warning sign to somebody and transfer of protectorates abused in a similar defensive fashion.

[Mus]

BTW, just let me know when I need to create the game files.

Actually I suppose I could create them now, I just wouldn't know who to send them to. Do we have an email list somewhere?

[Marshal Villars]

Concerning 3.0, I am considering just wholly banning the transfer of protectorates and parts of protectorates. With a handful of exceptions. Namely, Malta, Salzburg, Wurzburg, Palatinate, Berg, Kleves. It would eliminate the ridiculously complicated "rolling" transfer that would be required with larger protectorates, which in some cases may not even work in the end if the regions weren't contiguous. Yes. I am close to banning protectorate transfer all together. Except for the above cases and the Spanish and Austrian special possessions.

Additionally, I am considering just giving the Austrian and Spanish player the right to do whatever they want to with their "special" provinces in 2.1 and 2.2 and allow them to play vanilla with them. Once transferred (except in the case of an immediate retransfer for incorporation), they lose any special status and play continues with these provinces holding the same advantages and disadvantages of any other province.

Mus, I also agree on the Franco-Austrian-Prussian war being terminated. And am considering forcing the Austrians and Prussians to void their alliance (they can of course form it again later if they like). The Austrians and the Prussians were NOT friendly with each other at this time and had all kinds of problems with each other.

[Mus]

Make sure to respond to my PM regarding game setup which I plan to do ASAP even before the email list is completed as I have limited time over the next few days.

1792 Poland, highest glory, 5 years, advanced economy, wellington game difficulty, normal combat difficulty.

Let me know if I missed anything.

[Randomizer]

If you guys are still looking for a big-nosed heathen to assume the throne of His Most Catholic Majesty in Madrid I can throw my hat in the ring.  Only caveat is that I'm a PBEM virgin but do not expect anybody to be gentle...
 
Cheers