about Colony

[ham]

What kind of a colony in this game?

Does colony supply market and rare resources？

Unfortunately,　there's no concept of market in Victoria (Paradox).
And most resources are importable from world trade.
As a matter of fact,　Colony supply only prestige and manpower in Victoria.

I hope the game concept that drive for limited market and resources lead nations into catastrophe " World War"

Sorry my poor english.

　

[PhilThib]

This time you'll see the difference..there are really different markets (home, colonial, export)... competition for the markets will be one of the sources of tension

[vorkosigan]

I don't visit very often these forums, and today I just found out the answer to one post of mine recalling the - interesting & relevant - mechanics of Pax Britannica:

philippe thibaut and I at least (don't know for Pocus and others) have known and practised this game since long, as we did for SSI "imperialism", also known by Pocus

decision games (franco prussian war, risorgimento, crimean war, austro prussian war, russo turkish war, balkan war) boardgames, among others are also a precious source of inspiration

be sure this, and study of many international crisis , have been integrated in design thinking - still, it's in process, so a bit patience

as a sidenote I like pax britannica a lot, especially it is amazing how the general flow of colonial history was accurately depicted by very simple means, like tempo of credit growth and commercial fleet placement, plus a handful of siple specific rules - some mechanisms (like chinese resentment table) then innovative, I consider a revolution in state of the art

That was actually the part of the game I liked the most how colonization worked in a tiered fashion: interest then influence then protectorate/posession, and how the ratio of expansion of the major powers was dictated by the deployment of commercial fleets on key areas. I also liked the mechanics which allowed colonial interests to co-exist. It makes an interesting game since, as a player, you have the decision to either cooperate and share the profits, and play the pound hoarding game, or rather flex your muscles and establish protectorates reducing influence of third powers in the region to collect VPs by achieving victory conditions... giving casus bellis to everyone and his dog if you don't play the diplomacy right :-)

In the PB game I mentioned there almost was a major war between the French & the British over Eastern Africa (the Brit was bored of having to keeping track of expenses and wanted the VPs fast I think), not to mention the German player, who had to drink a quite sour drink as his African establishments were pushed aside by French & British action - and he did not want to risk playing the "Great War" game by building up his warfleet...

And the "Chinese Revolt" mechanics were genius... both an opportunity and a danger (the Russian player managed to lose a 10-point army to the chinese boxers :mdr ...

The only part that I found lacking in the game were events: I felt that "unrest" events should be occuring more often and be more "severe" - in the lines of the Chinese Revolt... without them can be some game turns as fun as watching paint to dry :-/

It would be nice that VGN colonies mechanics introduced some of these features, it would allow a very dynamic - and full of surprises - gameplay.

[alexander seil]

As a matter of fact,　Colony supply only prestige and manpower in Victoria.

Which means that Victoria nailed the whole useless concept as it was. The whole experience of new imperialism pretty much demonstrated that the only way to make a colony profitable was by either stumbling upon a pile of diamonds, or by pillage and murder. The only other way to benefit from undeveloped territories, "invented" later, is outsourcing, which goes against the very populist principle of new imperialism (since most people don't like outsourcing for reasons they can't actually formulate without violating basic precepts of standard neoclassical economics).

I'm not mentioning trade as a means to wealth here, of course, but the most visible example here - China - wasn't ever a colony of anything, except being a sort of a condominium/protectorate in one package.

[Pocus]

Power projection also needed coaling facilities, so a bit of territory grabbing there and there

[Palisadoes]

So will the logistics system be more developed than Vicky as well then (i.e. ships have limited range before they need to go to a coaling station) ?? This would be a very nice touch to include in the game, and it is historically relevant too.

[Pocus]

Indeed, limited range around your coaling stations will be a feature of the game. How it worked in Wiki? You could cruise around the world?

[Palisadoes]

Yeah, you could just cruise around the world no matter what, no need to refuel, nothing. That's good news to hear that coaling stations (and the whole logistics system) will be a lot more relevant in VGN.