Balance of Power- Intro Thread

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Lord of the Gyre
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Post by Lord of the Gyre »

I've settled on a World War II Balance of Power game. Starting January 31, 1936.


-German Reich-
Player:
Government: Fascist Dictatorship
Popularity: Extremely High
Units: 16 [-160 maintenance]
Navy: 7 [-70 maintenance]
Economy: 500
Deficit: 3000
Credit Income: +210 [+40 allied trade, +50 international trade, -150 deficit]
Conflicts: None
=
SS
Sphere: German (secret police/paramilitary)
Units: 4

-United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland-
Player:
Government: Constitutional Monarchy
Popularity: Somewhat High
Units: 7 [-70 maintenance]
Navy: 17 [-170 maintenance]
Economy: 320
Deficit: 2000
Credit Income: +140 [+110 allied trade, +50 international trade, -100 deficit]
Conflicts: None

-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics-
Player:
Government: Socialist Republic
Popularity: Oppressive Bliss
Units: 20 [-200 maintenance]
Navy: 6 [-60 maintenance]
Economy: 420
Deficit: 0
Credit Income: +180 [+10 allied trade, +10 international trade]
Conflicts: None
=
NKVD
Sphere: Soviet (secret police)
Units: 2

-French Republic-
Player:
Government: Republic
Popularity: Moderately High
Units: 8 [-80 maintenance]
Navy: 6 [-60 maintenance]
Economy: 300
Deficit: 2000
Credit Income: +160 [+50 allied trade, +50 international trade, -100 deficit]
Conflicts: None

-Kingdom of Italy-
Player:
Government: Fascist Dictatorship
Popularity: High
Units: 7 [-50, 5 in Ethiopia, -70 maintenance]
Navy: 6 [-60 maintenance]
Economy: 370
Deficit: 1600
Credit Income: +190 [+30 allied trade, +50 international trade, -80 deficit]
Conflicts: Second Italo-Abyssinian War

-United States of America-
Player:
Government: Federal Republic
Popularity: Moderate
Units: 10 [-100 maintenance]
Navy: 17 [-170 maintenance]
Economy: 360
Deficit: 3000
Credit Income: +120 [+130 allied trade, +50 international trade, -150 deficit]
Conflicts: None

-Empire of Greater Japan-
Player:
Government: Military Dictatorship
Popularity: High
Units: 15 [-150 maintenance]
Navy: 17 [-170 maintenance]
Economy: 450
Deficit: 600
Credit Income: +170 [+20 allied trade, +50 international trade, -30 deficit]
Conflicts: Occupation of China

-Republic of China-
Player: Gong
Government: Presidential Republic
Popularity: Very Low
Units: 20 [-200 maintenance]
Navy: 5 [-50 maintenance]
Economy: 330
Deficit: 3000
Credit Income: +10 [+10 allied trade, +50 international trade, -150 deficit]
Conflicts: Chinese Civil War
=
Communist Party of China
Sphere: Soviet
Units: 7
=
Ma Clique
Sphere: Neutral
Units: 2
=
Guangxi Clique
Sphere: Neutral (anti-Japanese with some pro-CPC leanings)
Units: 3
=
Sinkiang
Sphere: Soviet
Units: 2

You can pick from any nation of the time period, however (plus the Chinese Communist Party). Those are just the nations that are needed. I'd like at least 10 players at the beginning.
"But a moment later Kasreyn twitched. His limbs shifted. Slowly, stiffly, he climbed to his hands and knees, then to his feet. An instant ago, he had had no pulse: now his heart beat with renewed vigor. Strength flowed back into him. He turned to face the company. He was grinning like a promise of murder."

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Post by Coinneach »

I'll take Japan if thats sound.
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Post by Lord of the Gyre »

Right on, brother.
"But a moment later Kasreyn twitched. His limbs shifted. Slowly, stiffly, he climbed to his hands and knees, then to his feet. An instant ago, he had had no pulse: now his heart beat with renewed vigor. Strength flowed back into him. He turned to face the company. He was grinning like a promise of murder."

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Post by Huojin »

Screw you, Coinneach! :P

I'll nab the USA.
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

There would be like... 25 cool points for playing the Vatican. But that's not enough to balance out their being immensely tiny and without much in the way of military might.

Therefore, I choose the USS England, largest aircraft carrier in the American fleet. Er... that is to say, I choose [North] Ireland. And if I have to take the USS England in the process, that's fine I guess.

I'm guessing this is NOT the Twilight 2000 rules? What rules are they? I have no clue what those stats mean. Especially the part about Italy being a Kingdom with a facist dictator instead of a king.
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Post by Lord of the Gyre »

Goatkiller666 wrote:There would be like... 25 cool points for playing the Vatican. But that's not enough to balance out their being immensely tiny and without much in the way of military might.

Therefore, I choose the USS England, largest aircraft carrier in the American fleet. Er... that is to say, I choose [North] Ireland. And if I have to take the USS England in the process, that's fine I guess.

I'm guessing this is NOT the Twilight 2000 rules? What rules are they? I have no clue what those stats mean. Especially the part about Italy being a Kingdom with a facist dictator instead of a king.
Italy was technically known as the Kingdom of Italy during Mussolini's reign, but Mussolini held all the power. Some stuff I copied and pasted on Balance of Power:

I. Getting Started

At first you're probably very confused. What can all of these things mean? Where do I start? What do I do? What's going on? The first thing you should do is Calm The Fuck Down. Getting started is so simple, even a caveman could do it. Your first objective should be locating the forums. In most games there will be two forums; a news forum, for the updates and individual reports, and a discussion forum, usually labeled United Nations or League of Nations. This is where the game is located. Next you should figure out when the game is taking place. This is usually found in the News forum's description. If an administrator fucked up and did not put it in there then you can easily find the starting date in the Turn's topic which will always be an Announcement topic in the News forum.

# A. Picking a nation

After you figured out what year the game is set in you can begin picking a nation. This is crucial because you can't play without one. A noteworthy hint that may seem obvious but not always followed is you should pick a nation that exists during that time. If you want to play as Ukraine and its in the Cold War then you're out of luck, its part of the Soviet Union. If you want to play as Angola and its still part of Portugal as a colony, you should pick another nation. If this is your first game then you should not attempt the United States, USSR, or any world power for that matter. A nice small country like Cuba or Poland would better suit you. On that note it should also be made aware that in most cases picking a Caribbean, Nordic, or Canadian/Australian nation is worthless as they do absolutely nothing between World War II and modern day events. These nations should be avoided like the plague

An invaluable source of information is Wikipedia. There is nothing more frustrating than a player who knows dick about their country. If you pick a country then it is expected that you do at least an hour's worth of research on their history and the events they are involved in during the game's time period. This means if you're France you should not send troops to Vietnam because they hate you. Cuba will never lead an alliance of Caribbean and Latin American states to invade the US. And Franco's Spain will never ally with the Soviets. If you play as Iran and act surprised that you were overthrown by radical Islamists then you probably didn't research enough.

# II. Stats

You got your nation all ready and you're looking at the stats. What the fuck do they mean? First, you can find your statistics where the game master (GM) posts the turn reports. You may have to scroll down a bit to find your nation, or you could just press CTRL+F and enter your name or your nations name to find it quickly. Once you find your nation, some things may seem obvious to you, while others may be hard to understand. Let’s use an example nation to help you understand.

-Kingdom of Fordolo-
Player: Your Username
Government: Socialist Republic
Popularity: Somewhat High
Units: 7/8 [-10, 1 in Germany, -80 maintenance]
Defenses:
Technology: Mechanized Infantry [Complete Late 1940]
Economy: 80
Deficit: 200
Credit Income: +40 [+10 allied trade, +50 international trade, -10 deficit]
Conflicts: World War II
=
Sonny’s Sunshine Warriors
Sphere: Soviet
Units: 4

Complicated? Nah, it's really not all that complicated. It just takes some basic math and common sense to figure out what is going on here. First, you see Your Nation's Name, and you will see your username next to Player, showing the rest of the forum that this is your nation. Below that, you will see your Government type. This fictional nation is a socialist republic, but it really isn't that big of a deal. Under your government type is Popularity, which shows how popular the current government is in the nation. Luckily, this fictional nation is doing well, but if it were at Low or Extremely Low, rebels may pop up and try to overthrow your government, which is never good.

But as we continue down the lines, next up is Units. This is where you keep track of your military strength and locations. First off, you have 8 total units, and hold 7 at home while you have 1 unit deployed out in another fictional nation, let's say you are at war with. Overall, because you have 8 units, you have to pay a maintenance fee of -80 credits per turn, but because you have one of your units deployed, you have to pay an additional -10 credits to make sure that fighting unit has supplies, ammunition, and rations.

Following Units, is Defenses, which is a list of various defensive buildings, lines, walls, or weapon defenses your nation might hold to keep out enemies or slow invasions against your nation. Under that is Technology, which, if the game is early on in the 20th century, is important to help develop your military. Right now, your nation is researching mechanized infantry, which will help you greatly in any offensive maneuvers against enemy nations. As you can see, next to the researched technology is the turn at which it will be completed and be able to put into use.

Now with military out of the way, we can focus on probably the most important part of your statistics, the economic section. It starts off with your Economy, which is your base income per turn. Right now, your fictitious nation is making +80 credits per turn. With the credits you may have saved up, each turn you can invest in various industries in help improve your economy and how much money you make per turn. Below though, is your nation's Deficit, which, the higher it is, the higher the toll it can take on your nation's income. But don't worry, you have the ability to pay it back, which may be easy to finish within a few turns.

After deficit is your Credit Income, which is how much you make per turn. Your economy is not how much you make per turn, but it is your credit income. Just trying to clarify. The number next to your credit income is how much you are going to make per turn, which is +40 credits per turn. Right now, that isn't very much, but that is probably because your current economy cannot support how many units you have. But how did we find that number? Well here is the equation...

Economy + Trade - Unit Maintenance - Deficit = Credit Income

All you have to do to find your credit income is to take your economy, which is 80, and add that which how much you are making from both allied and international trade, which is 60, and you have 140. Then you subtract how many credits it costs to maintain your units, which is -90, and then subtract how much your deficit is costing you, which is -10. So 80 + 60 - 90 - 10 = 40, your credit income.

Phew, now that we are done with that, there is one more thing to cover, and that is Conflicts. Generally, most nations are involved in conflicts, but your fictitious nation is, and it appears to be involved in World War II. But while you may have units deployed to other countries, it appears your nation has some rebels to deal with, lead by Sonny himself! You will see the rebels name first, and then the sphere they are in, which appears to be Soviet, as they seem to be aligning themselves with the USSR. Finally, it shows how many units the rebels have, which is 4. You have the ability to deploy your units throughout your country to fight these rebels, but it will cost just as much to deploy them in another nation as it does to deploy them in your nation.


And the rules for this game:
Diplomatic Actions

-Push for government reforms (-100 credits, if succeeded gain 50 prestige and more support globally towards ideology plus increased relations with nation, if failed lose 20 prestige, name what reforms are requested)

-Negotiate End of Conflict (-20 credits, if succeeded gain 30 prestige, if failed lose 10, name what you are willing to do to help end conflict)

-Encourage Construction (-100 for light industry, 300, or 500 credits for heavy, will raise economy, particularly if running one based on command, can only be used once per turn, if done too much will become unpopular)

-Send arms to resistance (-50 credits, if successful resistance grows)

-Infiltrate resistance (-30 credits, if successful resistance will support you)

-Frame foreign nation (-30 credits, pick nation, then framed nation, will frame nation, causing loss of relations with other nation, if caught lose 30 prestige and both nations become enemies of yours)

-Coup government (-200 credits, if succeeded gain 30 prestige and a new, loyal government in nation, if failed lose 30 and make nation your enemy)

-Assassinate leader of nation (-30 credits, lose 10 prestige and international condemnation if found, if not then new leader rises with stability hit)

-Sabotage (-30 credits, hurt nation's economy)

-Fund political opposition (-20 credits, will help opposition win in selected nation when elections are held if successful)

-Build land unit (-50 credits)

-Build naval unit (-50 credits)

-Research new weapons/technology (-100 credits, can only be done once per turn, must be done several times in order for it to succeed)

-Build defenses (-100 credits, specify what kind of defenses such as land fortifications, AA guns, etc.)

-Send volunteers (-50 credits, creates land unit in specified country, if successful fights under control of nation or rebellion you choose, if failed lose prestige and make nation your enemy)

-Attack/Withdraw unit (-10 credits per land/naval unit when moving them. Each turn they are outside of their main nation there is a supply cost)

-Bomb nation (-50 credits, can destroy land/naval units or economy)

-Negotiate with NPC (-50 credits, specify what you want, such as military access, territory, etc., also specify what you are willing to give up)

-Propaganda (-50 credits, specify target and what the propaganda should say)

Rules

Starting in Early 1936 and ending when necessary, the goal of the game is to gain the most prestige. The game is played VIA private messages. The Game Master sends a credit report to each player for the turn and they select actions they wish to do. This usually takes place every day or two days.

All turns must specify which month their actions will take place in. Meaning if you attack India as South Africa you need to say if you attack in March or December.

Foreign spending and such do not require action points, you can freely adjust them each turn. Deficits siphon credit income away the larger they get, and if left unattended can slowly grow over time. Nations are able to 'pay' for an action by putting it under deficit.

You do not have to announce invasions. However, you will have a better chance of succeeding if you are already enemies with the country you're invading.

If you are invading a country that does not directly border you or your allies, you need to use your navy (specify the number of naval units you are using) or ask other countries for military access. Two land units can fit per naval unit.

Each colony has 1-3 native populations which can be controlled by the colonial power. As such Indochina or the British Raj in India can be controlled by France and the UK respectively but they cannot leave their home nation and are generally weaker than a colonial power.

Players may send money to each other secretly or publicly as a means of funding.
Huojin and Coinneach are fairly experienced, and they will help you out.
"But a moment later Kasreyn twitched. His limbs shifted. Slowly, stiffly, he climbed to his hands and knees, then to his feet. An instant ago, he had had no pulse: now his heart beat with renewed vigor. Strength flowed back into him. He turned to face the company. He was grinning like a promise of murder."

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Post by Huojin »

Lord of the Gyre wrote: Huojin and Coinneach are fairly experienced, and they will help you out.
:|

Only "fairly"?
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Post by Seven Words »

I'll take the Third Reich.
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Post by Stone Magnet »

^OOOh I hope my P.M got through before you 8O
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Post by Lord of the Gyre »

Seven Words, Stone sent his PM before you picked Germany, so if you would please pick something different. Soviet Union, maybe?
"But a moment later Kasreyn twitched. His limbs shifted. Slowly, stiffly, he climbed to his hands and knees, then to his feet. An instant ago, he had had no pulse: now his heart beat with renewed vigor. Strength flowed back into him. He turned to face the company. He was grinning like a promise of murder."

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Post by Huojin »

LotG, you should probably fix the stats a little. When I wrote them, they seemed fine, but now, I'm not sure they're great. Germany's economy is too strong, UKs is too weak, USAs is too weak, USSRs is too strong, Italy's is a bit too strong, Frances is a bit too weak, Japans is a a bit strong, too. Everything else is more or less fine.

Also, you listed "Gong" as the player for the ROC. Might wanna fix that.
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Post by Lord of the Gyre »

Thanks for pointing that out, I'll fix them when we get more interest (thus meriting a major look at the stats). I'll probably lower Germany a little and raise the USA and UK some, but I'm gonna keep the USSR and Japan how they are for balance.
"But a moment later Kasreyn twitched. His limbs shifted. Slowly, stiffly, he climbed to his hands and knees, then to his feet. An instant ago, he had had no pulse: now his heart beat with renewed vigor. Strength flowed back into him. He turned to face the company. He was grinning like a promise of murder."

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Post by Goatkiller666 »

How do we go from the stat "deficit: 200" to it being -10 towards your Credits Income?

Also, it suggests that all of us newbies should avoid playing super-powers? Anyone want to form Benelux with me? I'll take Luxembourg. (j/k)
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Post by Seven Words »

OK, italy.
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Post by Huojin »

Goatkiller666 wrote:How do we go from the stat "deficit: 200" to it being -10 towards your Credits Income?

Also, it suggests that all of us newbies should avoid playing super-powers? Anyone want to form Benelux with me? I'll take Luxembourg. (j/k)
To be fair, apart from Coinneach and myself, you're all newbies, so there's bound to be new players as some of the major powers. It doesn't really matter as long as you keep a level head and know what you're doing.

As for the deficit question, it sometimes varies, but in this particular set of stats, "Actual Deficit / 20 = Credit Drain", usually rounded up to the nearest 5.

Considering this player list:
Coinneach - Japan
Huojin - USA
Stone Magnet - Germany
Seven Words - Italy
(I've left off Goatkiller666 as, unfortunately, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, a non-autonomous composite region, and so cannot be played in of itself.)

I would suggest any new players pick the USSR, Britain, France, or the Republic of China. They're all powerful and interesting countries, and I don't foresee any major problems with newbies playing as them.
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

I'll take the UK. (Was thinking I'd go with the Republic of Ireland, but the UK will be more interesting.) Anyway, I'm a mutt. Got Irish, English, German, and Swedish in me.
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Post by Huojin »

Okay, I reckon we need 3 more people and we can get this started. Just need the Soviets, French and Chinese and all will be well. Invite people you know to play, guys.
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Post by Kalindriel Ec'urb »

And I thought I had a mixed heritage!
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Post by Lord of the Gyre »

Groovy, now we just need 3 players. Anyone can play, it's fairly simple once you get the hang of it.
"But a moment later Kasreyn twitched. His limbs shifted. Slowly, stiffly, he climbed to his hands and knees, then to his feet. An instant ago, he had had no pulse: now his heart beat with renewed vigor. Strength flowed back into him. He turned to face the company. He was grinning like a promise of murder."

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Post by Ore-sama »

Hi. I'll take France.
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