Gary Sax's Here I Stand AAR

Bill Abner wants in and I can probably get Pseudointellectual (Kristoff) on board.

I don't mind being in two games if there's interest.

If there's any room, I'm in! Especially now that the TI3 online game I'm in seems to be dead.

As stated on the front page, if there is room available, I would love to give it a try. Have never played yet and am relatively unfamiliar with Cyberboard, although I have all the modules on my computer. No preference for one of the powers.

Cheers!

I've played quite a few times, so I can take either the Pope or the Protestants.

I must warn you Mr. Barnes, that the Pope is not very easy to play as. The Pope is more of a counter balance to the other players than an outright powerhouse. You can win as the Pope, but I've never seen it happen. Some seem to think it's the hardest.

I am personally fond of Luther and the Protestants myself.

Here I stand, huh, good gawd y'all!

Who knew there'd be so much demand? I think we could do _three_ games.

I'm breaking this out into two threads. We're going to try to get organized that way. I'll post 'em in a second

The AAR continues... turn 2 is now over. And what an interesting turn it was!



Here is the VP count at the beginning of the turn. Protestants are low but they will jump quite a bit when they enter the game fully as a military power when the Schmalkaldic league is played.



The turn starts with the Ottomans spring deploying and marching on Budapest. A costly field battle with the Hungarians ensues with both sides losing a number of regulars. In the end though, the Hungarians are crushed. At this point an event fires within the game--the fall of Hungary. Recall that Hungary is one of the unplayed independent powers. So the Hungarians have triggers, a few conditions that need to be met (namely the Ottomans beating the crap out of the Hungarians). If they are met Hungary falls and the Austrians get control of the remaining Hungarians spaces (netting them more cards/turn) and the Ottomans get 2VP for winning a war and they get a couple of the Hungarian keys. More cards for them as well then. The shot above is post Hungary falling--you can see the Austrians taking control of some spaces and Ottos taking the other spaces. Throughout the rest of the turn the Ottomans and Hapsburgs trade a few cards building up forces near Vienna. I don't include it in the narrative but be aware it is happening, as well as trips to the New World. It appears and Ottoman invasion of Austria is coming up soon based on troop buildups--but they will have to winter in Istanbul and return next year since they didn't march this turn.

The Hapsburgs then play an anti-Protestant event--Anabaptist, which flips a few spaces. Annoying but not a huge deal. Undoubtedly it was part of the Hapsburg-Papal alliance agreement for the Pope to play that. The English respond by playing Cloth Prices Fluctuate, giving a couple cards to the English and Hapsburgs. It looks like the English are really wheeling and dealing with everyone here.



Critically, the French come through with their end of our little bargain--they play Printing Press for CP and head over the pass from France into Italy with Francis and a sizable army. This means I will be able to pick up Printing Press on my way to a Big Protestant Turn (I am holding Erasmus and Katerina Bora, big Protestant cards as well). Even better, they use their CP to march over the mountains into Italy with a large number of troops to threaten the Pope. The French have settled with the Haspburgs, but they are still at war with the Pope so they are not worried about the Hapsburgs attacking from Germany, Spain or the Low Countries. Things could not look better for me for this turn--it looks like the Pope has bigger fish to fry, i.e. not getting crushed by the French, than worrying about the Protestant religion. As promised, I hand Landskenechts to the French and pick two more cards up, using the Dipomatic Overture event I outlined earlier. I pick up new cards--only one is interesting, Mercenaries Demand Pay. It will come in unexpectedly very handy in a moment. The turn rolls on. The French build a bunch of mercenaries in Italy. They are planning something, and the Hapsburgs know it--the Haps respond by playing Unsanitary conditions and killing a number of the French troops in Italy.



As a game sidebar, there are two types of troops in the game. I have put a picture of the two types above. There are mercenaries, which have the black background, and regulars, which are normal full color. Regulars cost more to produce and are quite steep while mercs are very cheap and fight just as well--the critical difference is there are a large number of cards in the deck which make mercenaries very unreliable and dangerous to have in your armies. They can evaporate with the play of a card or even switch sides, potentially. I have drawn one such card, Mercenaries Demand Pay. I think this mechanism is an *awesome* game design decision by the designer--they fight no differently but are a gamble if the opponent has mercenary events.



The turn develops. The English player has chosen this turn as the turn to march on and destroy the Scots (above). He easily succeeds in doing this over the course of the multiple card plays during the turn. Edinburgh falls to the English, another key and card to the English. Additionally, he plays his home card--Henry asks for a divorce from the Pope, which the Pope can negotiate for in the next negotiation phase. It can (and should be) extremely expensive for Henry to get his divorce. If it is too cheap, the Pope has not has done his job and has potentially helped Henry a huge amount in getting VP by having an heir.



Things are going crazy in Italy, however! France's plan in Italy becomes clear--he has no intention of actually attacking the Pope, rather he instead plays Sack of Rome and lets all the mercenaries he raised loose on Rome! Combat ensues and the mercs Sack Rome, taking a massive two cards out of the Pope's hand and killing all defenders in Rome. This is a perfect opportunity for the Protestants--the Pope holds only one hand left after the Sack of Rome, which keeps the Protestant debaters under threat. I respond by playing "Mercenaries Demand Pay." This card forces the Pope to use his last card in order to keep the few forces (mercenaries) he has left in Italy. "A-ha," Luther thinks, "I have him!"

And I do have the Pope. He is completely out of cards so he can do *nothing* for the remainder of the turn. And I am sitting on all my powerful cards, with Printing Press in the discard pile. The Pope cannot call debates--therefore I have no reason to keep holding "Here I Stand" to make sure my debaters are protected by Luther. I not only get uninterrupted impulses but can also use every single debater in whatever order I want without worrying about being burned at the stake--for much of the game the Protestant cannot use his debaters because of the threat of Eck or other powerful papal debaters taking weak debaters to the wood shed and burning them at the stake.



The other players realize the danger to the Pope, with the French holding many, many cards to militarily damage the Pope and the Protestants completely free to do anything they want in Germany and France spreading religion. England slyly agrees to a deal with the Pope--recall that any negotiations happen out loud to the entire table if they are not in the diplomacy phase. England helps the Pope by suggesting a play of Treachery to help him, ensuring that Florence falls to the Pope (he had been sieging it before losing all his cards early in the turn)... In exchange for a divorce on the next diplomacy phase. This is actually a very, very shrewd move by the English, getting the most out of a conflict they are barely involved in. Paying one card, even a powerful one like Treachery (5CP), is a very small price to pay for the divorce from his first wife. The Pope agrees and Florence, under independent control, falls to the Pope by means of Treachery (picture above, with the French army lurking nearby and Rome lying empty after being Sacked).



The French ally with Genoa using Andrea Dorea. They then proceed to put the dagger in the Pope's heart--by taking Rome by force! French forces march through Genoa into Rome, picking up Genovese troops (pink) on the way. Despite the best efforts of the rest of the table, not even Foul Weather (card played by English to slow French down) can prevent the inevitable. Rome falls, and the Pope is left without a home. The only realistic solution for the Pope is one of two things next turn, for his turn this turn is shot--the most likely result is the Pope will sue for peace during the diplomacy phase. Alternatively he can somehow get a strong alliance with the Hapsburgs to push the French out of Italy. But the Pope has no leaders and therefore has a near impossible task of fighting a real war against non-independents. The Pope is audibly gnashing his teeth over the e-table.

During this, Luther has been spreading Protestantism like wildfire. First I play Printing Press. This gives me a few conversion attempts but more importantly gives me critical bonuses in every subsequent attempt this entire turn! Rather than talk through it, I will instead let the pictures do the talking showing my turn--



Low point turn spaces number



Printing Press is played.



New Testament is completed and Printing press assists in Germany



Katerina Bora is played



Erasmus is played



French New Testament is started and finished.



Protestant spaces at the end of the turn. I have exhausted all easy opportunities in France and most in Germany but have gotten some hard to reach spaces even in France. One of the main things making spreading the faith hard in France is the presence of Catholic armies, which make spaces very difficult to get to. I have gotten a ways in and that is very good and very difficult.

It has been a Good Turn. I am concerned about the English, who have met most of their goals and have had little resistance from the other players. Ignored players not given any guff are dangerous to the table. Beyond that, the French and I have our profile hugely increased since we had such good turns--the French are at 19VP and I am potentially at 19VP if Schmalkaldic League is played. Recall that 25VP wins the game. So I expect some major help next turn for the Pope from the other players to balance the game.

Finally, here is the New World Results, which the various players have been paying spare VP for throughout the turn--



French Explorer Robeval discovers the Amazon River for 2VP, while Cordova crushes the Inca and Desoto discovers the St. Lawrence River. Additionally 3 colonies are active.



Next up is the next diplomacy phase. This is one of the most fun and exciting games of HIS or any game I have ever played, and all the other players at the table really helped--they are fun and they turn impulses around very quickly (I think they are as excited about this game as I am).

Any further updates on the way? Don't tell me that the game fell through after two awesome turns. The people need to know how it ends!

Definitely not. Third turn is almost over as we speak. I will post up the next part when it is over.

For some reason all the players have had a slow turn around time this turn. But very interesting happenings thus far so it should make good reading.

This game was on my radar, but it just got in my pants and gave me a case of the "buy me now" crabs. Incredible.

I have to be a prick and bump this because this game just ended at the end of turn 7 with a come from behind papal win (I was very close to winning in turn 6 as the protestants!). I have never played a better game of anything. Ever. This game is so tightly balanced it's crazy. Mary made an appearance in turn 7 helping the Pope to victory.

Too bad it had to take more than a year to finish. But it was still awesome. I need to come to something where I can play a full ftf.

That means 5 more turn recap posts, right?

Cough em up!

I finally tracked down a copy of this for a reasonable price (in-shrink even), and it arrived today. This means I'm going to force a 3-player game out of my heaviest-game friends. I'm afraid I just don't have 5 local people who'd be up for it to make a full game.

I've cut my teeth on F:AT game 3 (midway through turn 2 now), and this game is way more fun than it has any right to be, even as a PBEM.

I also need to travel someplace with 5 like-minded people to spend all day plotting, scheming, and occasionally stabbing.

This is a game that I'd love to own just for the brain-candy effect. Not one person in my local gaming group would so much as consider lifting the lid on this thing, but it looks like an exact fit for me.

I'm thinking about trading in half-a-dozen friends on three that would be willing to play something like Here I Stand.

I'm late on this thread -- how did you implement the long-distance play? Was it on Vassal or did you play by email with a board set up somewhere? This may be the only way I get to participate in a game like this.

Sag.

We did cyberboard w/ACTS to handle dice rolling and card deals. It works pretty smoothly. It's just that, as in any 6 player game, it's almost impossible to get everyone going quickly.

Thus the game slows way down at points. Another option that would be cool is to do it with the wargameroom software, which is live play internet which enforces all the rules. That would be pretty fing awesome.

The game I'm in is Vassal/ACTS. Running fine, although we've hit a slow patch over the last week or so.

Gary Sax wrote:

Another option that would be cool is to do it with the wargameroom software, which is live play internet which enforces all the rules. That would be pretty fing awesome.

Yes, I agree. If a F:AT wargameroom game is a possibility, I'll do everything I can to clear the time.

If another PBEM game is coming up also let me know, since I find myself spending a lot of time over-scheming for the one I'm in. I could be using that idle Reformation-era brainpower in another game.