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winterbadger) wrote2013-02-24 05:51 pm
winterbadger) wrote2013-02-24 05:51 pm
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gaming
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gr_c17 and Mr Invisible came over yesterday and we played Here I Stand, an awesome update of the old SPI A Mighty Fortress. The game covers the early to mid 16th century in Europe, a fascinating time. Four of the six players are monarchs of the (Holy Roman) Empire, France, England, and Ottoman Turkey. The fifth is the Papacy--a half-temporal, half-spiritual ruler who has both his own armies and also legions of scholars and churchmen, who set out to stem the tide of the heretical Reformation. The sixth player represents the Protestant movement, entirely spiritual until it gains enough ground for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League (a confederation of Protestant princes intended to protect their followers from the temporal forces of the Church of Rome).
All of the monarchs have their trials. The Ottomans are perhaps the most powerful; they have huge armies and can build great fleets of corsairs. But they face the bulwark formed by the Empire, Europe's most redoubtable military force. The Emperor, though, stands to lose control of much of Germany if Protestantism becomes powerful. And he can't rely on much support from his brother Christian monarchs, who seek to take advantage of his distraction to carve up his western boundaries.
The French are natural allies of the Ottomans, under the time-honoured "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" principle. But they also have the English to contend with, who will want at the least to crush plucky little Scotland, France's other natural ally. And France begins partway through its attempt to dominate Italy, a move that puts it at loggerheads with the Pope, who is trying to do the same thing. The Papacy wants to enlarge its temporal territory, but it can't spend too much time and energy on that or the Protestant menace will become too powerful. The English want the best of both worlds--they want to be Catholic but do as they please (as the king pleases) in "the Great Matter" of the king's marriage(s).
And the Protestants struggle to manage a multilingual effort at subversion and revolution that sometimes sees members of their active cadre of campaigners burned at the stake after losing out in theological debate with the Pope's picked scholars. Once the Protestants achieve status as a political power, you would think that their troubles would be eased, but in fact this just means they have two realms of conflict to defend in, with more or less the same resources as before.
Meanwhile the Empire, the French, and the English are working away to explore and exploit the New World so as to support their efforts in the old.
It's a very fun game. Bryan took the French and Ottomans, Eric the Papacy and the Empire, and I took the English and the Protestants. Eric had totally spanked me the week before when we played a simplified two-player version, in which I took the Papacy and he the Protestants. I was unable to repeat the deed, though, and Bryan's Turks were not able to overthrow the eastern fortresses of the Empire, so Eric ended up with a well deserved victory at the end. purple Papal banners flying.
gr_c17 and Mr Invisible came over yesterday and we played Here I Stand, an awesome update of the old SPI A Mighty Fortress. The game covers the early to mid 16th century in Europe, a fascinating time. Four of the six players are monarchs of the (Holy Roman) Empire, France, England, and Ottoman Turkey. The fifth is the Papacy--a half-temporal, half-spiritual ruler who has both his own armies and also legions of scholars and churchmen, who set out to stem the tide of the heretical Reformation. The sixth player represents the Protestant movement, entirely spiritual until it gains enough ground for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League (a confederation of Protestant princes intended to protect their followers from the temporal forces of the Church of Rome).All of the monarchs have their trials. The Ottomans are perhaps the most powerful; they have huge armies and can build great fleets of corsairs. But they face the bulwark formed by the Empire, Europe's most redoubtable military force. The Emperor, though, stands to lose control of much of Germany if Protestantism becomes powerful. And he can't rely on much support from his brother Christian monarchs, who seek to take advantage of his distraction to carve up his western boundaries.
The French are natural allies of the Ottomans, under the time-honoured "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" principle. But they also have the English to contend with, who will want at the least to crush plucky little Scotland, France's other natural ally. And France begins partway through its attempt to dominate Italy, a move that puts it at loggerheads with the Pope, who is trying to do the same thing. The Papacy wants to enlarge its temporal territory, but it can't spend too much time and energy on that or the Protestant menace will become too powerful. The English want the best of both worlds--they want to be Catholic but do as they please (as the king pleases) in "the Great Matter" of the king's marriage(s).
And the Protestants struggle to manage a multilingual effort at subversion and revolution that sometimes sees members of their active cadre of campaigners burned at the stake after losing out in theological debate with the Pope's picked scholars. Once the Protestants achieve status as a political power, you would think that their troubles would be eased, but in fact this just means they have two realms of conflict to defend in, with more or less the same resources as before.
Meanwhile the Empire, the French, and the English are working away to explore and exploit the New World so as to support their efforts in the old.
It's a very fun game. Bryan took the French and Ottomans, Eric the Papacy and the Empire, and I took the English and the Protestants. Eric had totally spanked me the week before when we played a simplified two-player version, in which I took the Papacy and he the Protestants. I was unable to repeat the deed, though, and Bryan's Turks were not able to overthrow the eastern fortresses of the Empire, so Eric ended up with a well deserved victory at the end. purple Papal banners flying.
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Most recent game (two+ years ago, I think) I won as the French. Only time I've ever won...
Bill