Encore of Europe: Rules, Sign-up, and General Discussion

[Dereich]

I would like to play Austria

I'm considering who to play.

[Dereich]

OK, I'd take the Habsburg Lands is available.

I'd still like to be notified in advance if the Ottoman Empire is free at any point.

The Netherlands are still available I believe

I'm fine with him having Austria. I myself would like the Netherlands.

[Dereich]

Orders sent!

[Dereich]

Please stop empty quoting. Every time I see that there is an update to the thread I'm ready to leap out of my chair with anticipation. Oh, and also:

May I just say, a superb experience thus far, and my sincere congratulations to Spamage. I very much look forward to see what happens!

I share this sentiment!

[Dereich]

Does Austria count as Eastern or Western Europe with regard to the famine? You didn't include Austria in either group.

[Dereich]

Congratulations team! As we did not have general European war declared on turn two we have managed to make this game more peaceful than Concert of Europe! I knew we had it in us! I'm sure this state of tranquility will last many many more turns.

[Dereich]

Well, peace was nice while it lasted.

[Dereich]

On an another note, with the hypothesis that the players are rationale, here is my prediction for the next 30 years:
-There will be a diplomatic revolution: in Central Europe: right now there are 2 big feuds in Central Europe: Prussia vs Austria, and Russia vs the Ottomans and Sweden. With Poland being out of it for now. 2 main things will change the current alliances:
     x Prussia will naturally become the natural ally of Russia as Sweden will be even more powerful with the annexation of Denmark with this personal union stuff.
     x Austria will become more and more wary of Russian  expansion because any revolt in the Balkans would obviously threaten the stability of Austria with all the minorities in Austria that could inspire themselves from the slaves. So the Ottomans would become progressively the natural ally of Austria.

So that means that for the next season of this game in 20-30 years, if the players are rationale, it should be in Central Europe these following coalitions: Austria-Ottomans-Sweden vs Prussia-Russia

If this plays out, it will make for an interesting third stage of the Concert of Europe series that I'm planning.

In some ways it can be argued that this is what happened IRL:

-Maria Theresa considered declaring war against Catherine of Russia when she invaded the Ottomans as she was worried about russian extension. And Austria, while remaining neutral, was definitely hostile to Russian expansion during the Crimean war.

-As for Russia and Prussia, I read that had Austria Hungary joined the Franco-Prussian war in 1869-1870 there was a secret signed between Russia and Bismarck saying that Russia would have joined the war on the Prussian side.

I think other diplomatic alignments are possible; there is no need to think of Sweden-Ottoman-Russia  and Austria-Prussia as be-all-end-all rivalries. Sweden and Russia have already been very close to an alliance and don't have any obvious need for tension. There is also less of an obvious case for a Russia-Ottoman rivalry as Ottoman possessions in Ukraine and the Caucasus fall away. And there are plenty of scenarios where the Austria-Prussia rivalry could be ignored or mended due to a third party.

There could, for a purely hypothetical example, be a realignment where Austrian interests in Italy and Prussian colonial interests prompted an alliance against France. If reigning in an expanding France was the next big thing, a Britain-Austria-Prussia vs France-Russia alignment seems just as likely.

[Dereich]

If the turn does end this evening, I'd ask you to push it to tomorrow morning.

[Dereich]

Orders in with one whole minute on the clock.

EZ

[Dereich]

Ugh. Uuuuuugh. I tried to avoid a schism in the church. I did. I just made everything worse.

[Dereich]

Italy has somehow ended up as an even bigger mess than in otl.

Play in these games enough and you’ll discover that this happens to every character or country X puts his hands on.

[Dereich]

Italy has somehow ended up as an even bigger mess than in otl.

Play in these games enough and you’ll discover that this happens to every character or country X puts his hands on.

A man takes pride in his work   ASPN, were you here for the time when I depopulated half a continent by turning them all into ice zombies (i.e. omnicide)?  Gooooood times.  Although to be fair, I'm not playing the Boltons that way in Leonardo's game and I didn't play Tywin that way in the first ASOIAF game.

Uh huh. Sure you're not. We're on turn two and your tricks haven't come to light yet.

[Dereich]

Hmm, so what year is this game on?

The next turn should be 1786.

[Dereich]

No, no. The revolts and the assassinations were done by different people. I know who caused the revolts, I will find who caused the assassinations.

[Dereich]

Everyone with a clear motive and ability to conduct this has publicly or privately denied it. Either someone unexpected is playing a long game or someone is lying.

This feels like a closed-circle murder mystery! Tell me Sardinia, what were you doing on the night before the murders?

[Dereich]

I didn't do it either, not only this is utterly insane, it would be idiotic for me  considering I'm among the first to be blamed or evem turned into a convenient scapegoat.

Under the rules it would be silly as well, since Dereich would take over as one of Joseph's numerous bros or nephews. I remember Wallace continuing as Russia after Elizabeth's murder.

Putting the rules bit aside, now that I look at it more closely it wouldn't be silly at all. If all the assassinations had succeeded, the Austrian crown would have passed to my unmarried daughter, Maria Theresa. With the three most pro-Hapsburg electors dead and no convenient husband or landed male Hapsburgs to elect, the Holy Roman Empire would almost certainly have gone to someone else. There are several players who have an interest in splitting the HRE and the Hapsburg crown.

[Dereich]

I didn't do it either, not only this is utterly insane, it would be idiotic for me  considering I'm among the first to be blamed or evem turned into a convenient scapegoat.

Under the rules it would be silly as well, since Dereich would take over as one of Joseph's numerous bros or nephews. I remember Wallace continuing as Russia after Elizabeth's murder.

Putting the rules bit aside, now that I look at it more closely it wouldn't be silly at all. If all the assassinations had succeeded, the Austrian crown would have passed to my unmarried daughter, Maria Theresa. With the three most pro-Hapsburg electors dead and no convenient husband or landed male Hapsburgs to elect, the Holy Roman Empire would almost certainly have gone to someone else. There are several players who have an interest in splitting the HRE and the Hapsburg crown.

Habsburgs law of succession aren't agnaco cognatic like Britain. It would have gone to one of your brothers if all of your male children were wiped out.

As for Bayern, it would have gone to your daughter or maybe the Palatinate?

That's not the case. The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and the subsequent (still recent in-game!) reign of Maria Theresa point definitively to the end of Salic Law in Austria proper. Bavaria would probably have gone to a brother, or may have been taken over by Charles Theodore in the chaos.

[Dereich]

Orders sent

Here we go again