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Siege wrote:Right now I'm thinking the initial 20.000+ square kilometers are too large, but that was only ever an indication anyway.

New idea: I'd like to own one or two chains of small-ish (10 - 150 square kilometer) islands well off into the ocean. Too small to be on the map, but it would explain the 'missing' 5,000-ish square kilometers.

Random backstory: back in the 18th century the Omnian Emperor contracted privateers out of San Dorado to remove a bunch of corsairs from these islands. After they did the Emperor couldn't pay their fee, but he'd foreseen this and lawyered his way out by arguing that an obscure provision in the contract meant that in case of a default on payment the islands themselves served as collateral. This meant the Emperor didn't have to pay and the irate merchant houses were stuck with a bunch of useless islands. That turn of events permanently soured the merchant houses on the concept of territorial concessions, birthing the "bullion or bust" rule for contracting San Doradan mercenaries: pay up front, pay in gold.

Today the islands are still mostly untamed wildernesses, but some are private retreats, launch sites, research facilities, dinosaur cloning centers or other sensitive corporate facilities. As a rule: if upon approach of any particular island you're greeted by grim looking men on armed speedboats or in attack helicopters, it's probably best to quickly turn around.

I might want to add more geographical details to my largeish country. Maybe an inverted Russia?

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:I might want to add more geographical details to my largeish country. Maybe an inverted Russia?

Probably best to replace the tundra / arctic with savannah style wilderness then? Do you want to do it or shall I try my luck?

Kartr_Kana wrote:No having Rheinland get involved is part of the point. The Minoan Archipelago has historically lacked any significant natural resources, and its position is such that any attempt to seize it would like cause a war with the other nations around the Archipelago due to its strategic location near many trade routes and potential for airbases on some of the larger Atolls. This means that the most anyone does is send in a company or two of Marines supported by a destroyer to pound pirate bases.

Historically though - especially with the way Britonia, Granadia and Rheinland are set up I can't really see them tolerating any of this. Which is why I think placing them more southwards and away from the major routes would be better. It is very hard to imagine a Tunis-style menace surviving then.

Maybe the piracy is a new thing, relatively speaking? Maybe sealanes have shifted a bit due to a change in the favored ports of freighters in the container era, maybe political unrest on the islands is making them resort to piracy on a level that they never did before, or did only to local vessels and the occasional tramp freighter?

Either way works, whether it's been picking up since the end of the 80 years war using stocks of supplies left in the islands after brutal jungle warfare, or the islands aren't on the major trade routes. The main thing I need out of the islands, is for them to be close enough to other nations that a major military action or conquest of them would bring nations to the brink of war (maybe past it.)

Kartr_Kana wrote:

Thanas wrote:

Steve wrote:You want three islands of similar size then, Thanas? Those islands I colored are Honshu-Kyushu (they look like one due to the pixels), Shikoku, and Hokkaido flipped to the right.

Oh, apparently I suck at recognizing shapes now.No, that is fine. Sorry about that.


@Simon: Sorry about that. Forgot about the quoted image, I hope I fixed it now. If not, yell at me.

Kartr_Kana wrote:Could we get an archipelago of small one island NPC nations south of the Federated Republics, stretching from Granadia to UOCSR, the Minoan Archipelago. Or any other name, that's not really important. However I have a story idea or two that I need some islands infested with somali-style pirates and small semi-legitimate island governments for.

Rheinland would probably invade any pirate nation that close to its borders, so if you want pirates why not have them a bit far more away where they won't threaten Rheinland shipping? Unless you don't mind Rheinland getting involved, that is.

No having Rheinland get involved is part of the point. The Minoan Archipelago has historically lacked any significant natural resources, and its position is such that any attempt to seize it would like cause a war with the other nations around the Archipelago due to its strategic location near many trade routes and potential for airbases on some of the larger Atolls. This means that the most anyone does is send in a company or two of Marines supported by a destroyer to pound pirate bases.

I'm interested in fighting pirates.

Also, I'd like there to be a group of islands (either in the same area or elsewhere) that used to be a colony of Corona and is now allied to Corona. This could be an NPC nation if the mods approve. I'll post some more about what I have in mind later.

Fighting pirates is only a sideshow for the main story/event I have planned for the islands. Events that could spark WAR! Or just lots of arguing over tea in fancy houses.

I'd still like to be involved if that's alright.

Edit: since I see Corona probably getting a lot of what wealth it has from trade by sea, I can't see it tolerating piracy.

If there are pirate islands Rheinland would probably call for an international effort to eradicate them.

Ok so move them away from Rheinland, more easterly and down away south from the Republics.

Fin, do you want a border with Thanas as well? I was thinking the layout would look better if Zook had the border with him and you are then south and southeast of Zook and Kartr.

I can do inverted Russia for you two and lump an extra landmass on for Kartr.

Beo, I know you want a peninsula on your country, but is that the only important bit for your landmass?

Klavo, I was pondering whether to have a buffer state between our countries, it'd be a not-very-powerful NPC broken off from Klavostan when it had its Communist revolution post-WWII and the exiled anti-Communists gathered away from the heartland of the country, in a place under protection from the post-war Cascadian occupation. We can talk on it.

Later I'll go over Thanas' writeup of the 1910-era war with Britonia and see about building a WWI-analogue around it. We may have an interesting history where different "sides" won the WWs; Britonia's alliance wins WWI, but Britonia and their remaining allies created enemies in WWII that would inevitably tilt the balance and lead to their destruction.

Steve I would like to place three of my nations ( the three with the dictatorship based on Yugoslavia) on your proto-Americas, but in none of the maps have I seen this added. Maybe that would work as a buffer zone between you and Klavo? Rather than have an NPC.

Steve wrote:Klavo, I was pondering whether to have a buffer state between our countries, it'd be a not-very-powerful NPC broken off from Klavostan when it had its Communist revolution post-WWII and the exiled anti-Communists gathered away from the heartland of the country, in a place under protection from the post-war Cascadian occupation. We can talk on it.

It would be an odd duck of a buffer country, if it'd be a mix between the remnants of the old Royalist army and unassimilated natives. Two groups who traditionally Did Not Get Along - IMO the communists are doing a better job with the descendents of the natives than the the monarchy ever did.

Sounds like a complete powderkeg, with next to no economy, propped up by Cascadian aid to maintain their military: Enough to keep its own people from shooting one another on a daily basis, and enough to keep the communists busy for a couple days so the Cascadians can mobilize for a counterattack.

Agent Sorchus wrote:Steve I would like to place three of my nations ( the three with the dictatorship based on Yugoslavia) on your proto-Americas, but in none of the maps have I seen this added. Maybe that would work as a buffer zone between you and Klavo? Rather than have an NPC.

How many countries can you honestly be expected to run?

Thanas wrote:

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:I might want to add more geographical details to my largeish country. Maybe an inverted Russia?

Probably best to replace the tundra / arctic with savannah style wilderness then? Do you want to do it or shall I try my luck?

Well, I'm open to you trying your luck.

Steve wrote:Fin, do you want a border with Thanas as well? I was thinking the layout would look better if Zook had the border with him and you are then south and southeast of Zook and Kartr.

I can do inverted Russia for you two and lump an extra landmass on for Kartr.

Beo, I know you want a peninsula on your country, but is that the only important bit for your landmass?

Klavo, I was pondering whether to have a buffer state between our countries, it'd be a not-very-powerful NPC broken off from Klavostan when it had its Communist revolution post-WWII and the exiled anti-Communists gathered away from the heartland of the country, in a place under protection from the post-war Cascadian occupation. We can talk on it.

Later I'll go over Thanas' writeup of the 1910-era war with Britonia and see about building a WWI-analogue around it. We may have an interesting history where different "sides" won the WWs; Britonia's alliance wins WWI, but Britonia and their remaining allies created enemies in WWII that would inevitably tilt the balance and lead to their destruction.

Yeah a border with Thanas might work.

I don't really see a common border with us working as Katr_Kana is currently situated in the middle between us and I can't extend us without giving either one of us
- more territory and altering the map by pushing Katr_Kana even more to the south, which I am loath to do
or
- give us a tiny sliver of territory just to create such a border, which does not make sense at all IMO given the histories and Kangarian presence

More to the point, I fail to see what the border would do really. We are probably already dependent on trade with each other and given the relative less-populated east of Rheinland proper I don't get this. Besides Steve, I don't get why you have all kind of NPC puffer states popping up but want to push other players towards directly bordering each other. Rheinland is already bordering Granadia, Katr_Kana's republics, Kangaria and Fuso (less directly but still).

So I fail to see any sense or map logic in that.

Besides:

Steve wrote:I was thinking the layout would look better if Zook had the border with him and you are then south and southeast of Zook and Kartr.

This is already the case, except for Fin not having a border.

With regards to piracy, it could be a recurring issue: pirates start operating out of a remote island, their nuisance grows until someone does something about it, everything settles down for a bit, then sometime down the line pirates start operating out of another island and the cycle repeats. Piracy could be almost seasonal, with tides that follow the ups and downs of the global economy: perhaps at the start of the game piracy has for some time been on the rise again, and nations start thinking it might be time to cave in some heads. It could be a nice kickstarter event.

That seems to be a good idea.

OH FFFS.

[rant] Apparently my external HDD with all my screencaps on died. So the 12 hours of Japanese TV I watched to prepare the Ostrheinland storyline are lost. GREAT[/rant] You know what, F it, I'll just take whatever images I got lying around and throw them together.

Gott im Himmel.

Anyway, from what I see the pirates should be more like Somalia's, a recurring nuisance that is smacked down repeatedly, but it's not worth the time to actually occupy their bases for many reasons.

Agent Sorchus wrote:Steve I would like to place three of my nations ( the three with the dictatorship based on Yugoslavia) on your proto-Americas, but in none of the maps have I seen this added. Maybe that would work as a buffer zone between you and Klavo? Rather than have an NPC.

From the way you describe them, putting them between me and Klavo won't work given background and such, it's more logical if they're on the other side of Klavostan in "South America", with the Klavostani sultanate having traditionally been a buffer state from Granadian and others attacking them from the north - the coasts could've once been mostly imperial outposts of Britonia and Granadia and such, but decolonization saw the local nations recover them.

Your "controls a river mouth" country could control the river mouth of this continent's largest river in this case.

The bulb coming out south of Dresigond and such is to represent the general direction of the southern areas and then continent, where we'll put Beo, Klavo, and likely Sorchus' stuff.

Steve wrote:

The bulb coming out south of Dresigond and such is to represent the general direction of the southern areas and then continent, where we'll put Beo, Klavo, and likely Sorchus' stuff.

What is all the grey and brown in the middle of America then?

Piracy could be this world's version of drug-related crime: street pushers, i.e. the poor Somali-expies doing the actual hijacking, aren't actually an imminent threat to nation-states but somewhere down the line a powerful cartel is employing those low-level flunkies, and the people running that cartel actually might have the resources to cause serious problems.

Steve wrote:

The bulb coming out south of Dresigond and such is to represent the general direction of the southern areas and then continent, where we'll put Beo, Klavo, and likely Sorchus' stuff.

What represents Khagaria?

You, Zook, and Kartr can figure borders.

Klavo: the brown is temporary, my initial idea for an NPC in mid-America known as the Plains Republic.

The gray is just something to fill in with further NPCs or to compact.