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 Imperialism is a game originally published in 1997 for Windows & Mac. It was developed by Frog City Software and published by SSI. It is currently available at GoG.com, which is the version I'll be using. As in other turn-based grand strategy games, you guide a single nation as it grows in power until you can conquer the world. It's largely distinguished (especially from its contemporaries) by having power accrue primarily via economic means, without ignoring the usefulness of military force. It's an excellently focused system that is trying to simulate one period of human history — Europe of the 19th Century up to World War I, in particular the exploitation of smaller countries and colonies by the more powerful ones. Although the context is essentially a European one, the game allows the creation of a random world, and that is really what makes each game interesting. Every new country provides a slightly different challenge, and even if the game doesn't let you do everything you'd like with your nation, there's still a lot of variation in what to do. I'd even say that some of the things that might even be considered flaws often work out within the whole system to make a more entertaining game. This will be a screenshot LP of the game. It's all at the original resolution (640x480) and I have no plans to scale any of the images. Updates will typically cover three to five years of game time, although there may more detailed updates to cover battles if any occur. I will probably play at Normal difficulty, as that gives the most flexibility in play. That said, we won't necessarily be trying to win as quickly as possible. Let's get to choosing our country. The following post will show our world and present us with the most important decision in how we will shape it. Updates Spring 1815 : Welcome to Visisik Summer 1815-1818 : Choosing Our Friends Wisely 1818-1822 : Depots & Diplomacy 1822-1825 : The First Council 1825-1830 : People & Developers 1831-1834 : The End of Peace 1834-1837 : The Incursion 1837-1842 : The Invasion 1842-1846 : Broken Promises 1846-1850 : The Surprise Reversed State of the World 1850 1850-1855 : War at Sea 1855-1860 : The Quiet War 1860-1865 : The Time to Strike 1865-1867 : Repeating History 1867-1870 : Cutting off the Head 1870-1875 : Carving up the Body 1875-1880 : Moving Forward 1880-1885 : True Naval Power 1885-1890 : A Show of Force 1891-1895 : The Rise to Domination Kangra fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Jun 18, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 01:24
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Here's the starting screen with our world map. The poles can't be crossed, but the left and right edges do connect to each other.  A note on naming, culture, and history: When you create a world, there are two options for how provinces and countries are named. "Fixed" uses a set list of names for the countries, provinces and sea zones that don't really correspond with anything historical. While mostly consisting of made-up words, there are also some odd references thrown in, like American town names (one country even uses street names). While it is free from uncomfortable historical implications, it kind of ruins the flavor for me. "Random" actually picks randomly from a larger set of names for each country, and each reflects an actual Earth culture. The names are all nonsense words crafted to look like a certain language and the implied cultures are generally identifiable. The cultures as well are not randomized - the Great Powers are always assigned from a few historical empires, and the Minor Nations might well be thought of as other nations that were exploited or colonized. I don't think it's necessary to talk around the references, or even indulge in a bit of caricature, as I think we all understand this is a game and not even a close historical simulation. In fact we know we're not dealing with Earth here, and even within the game these amount to nothing more than labels. (These images are larger than normal, as they're pieced together from several views. Also, once we start, all the countries will have actual names, not just colors. )  1.Red - The mountains in the north central region provide some of the best land for raising sheep on the planet, and promise great mineral wealth as well. There are acres of forests ready to be developed to their south, and while farmland is not plentiful it should be sufficient. This country can be quite self-sufficient, but will be forced to play nice with (or conquer) neighboring Great Power Blue.  2.Orange - This land presents a wide variety of resources. Nothing really stands out, although minerals are likely to be its greatest strength. The forestland is of low quality, but should supply enough to support the economy. Orange is fairly strategically located relative to a number of minor nations, and with a strong navy would be well-protected and could control many sea routes.  3.Yellow - Dense with resources, this land could develop into a very powerful nation. It has the most lumber of any Great Power, mountains, and very little useless land. While somewhat out of the way from the other nations, it could still dominate its neighboring minor nations and even those on the west coast near Light Blue.  4.Green - The sole island Great Power, this country is actually quite arid for being surrounded by sea. Still, it has an okay amount of forest land, a few mountains, and very fertile farmland. Being isolated on an island means becoming a naval power. A number of good colonies would make this an excellent contender.  5.Light Blue - Vast areas of farmland, with little else, make for a tough position. Textiles for now are a booming business, but the coming century will likely require more than just cloth. In order to secure some better resources and protect the borders, a bit of expansion might be necessary.  6.Blue - Although a near mirror-image of Red, it is definitely the poorer of the two. The biggest problem here is the lack of trees. The desert area to the north isn't usable for much, either, so it's overall less resource-rich than the similarly-sized neighbor. Blue must be constantly wary of the stronger power to its west. It could attempt to expand north, but would have to watch its back the whole time.  7.Purple - If Light Blue has it tough, Purple might have it even worse. Much of the country is low-lying swampland, and while there is lumber here to harvest, there are no mineral resources. Purple almost has to expand into one or more of the minor nations that surround it. Not only do they need the resources, they can't afford to let any other Great Powers gain influence over their continent. Please vote in the thread for where our nation should be (use either color or number). I'm open to advice on capital placement as well, but that's ultimately going to be my choice once the thread decides on a country. We also need a name for our new nation. If you don't like this planet, you can if you wish decide to vote for a new world entirely. Kangra fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Mar 18, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 01:25
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This looks neat, Kangra! I'm a big fan of games like this, but I haven't heard of Imperialism before. I'm looking forward to seeing this LP, and if the game looks good I might get it myself. I hope that you'll go into more detail about the mechanics as we go on, but from the brief descriptions you gave of each nation I'm voting 6. Blue. I think having a neighboring rival will make for an engaging game/LP, and choosing the underdog means it will actually be interesting instead of just a forgone conclusion. Plus it gives the early goal of expanding north and looks close enough to other powers like Green and Orange to have an interesting late game as well. As for a name, if I understood your explanation of Random correctly, it generates a nonsense name that's sort of reflective of an actual language/culture? That seems neat, I'd say Roll the Dice and use a random name!
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Mar 18, 2015 01:50
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Orange looks interesting.
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Mar 18, 2015 01:59
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Light Blue looks like it would provide us a challenging start and from the map, plenty of room to expand into if we secure our continent first.
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Mar 18, 2015 02:04
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Light Blue looks fun, areas to expand to, but we'll probably end up having to chase other powers off our continent.
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Mar 18, 2015 02:07
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Please don't timg all your images. It's annoying to expand them one by one
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Mar 18, 2015 02:09
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Blue looks excellent. And go on and roll the dice. I've only played Imperialism 2 so let's see how this goes.
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Mar 18, 2015 02:15
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Lord Windy posted:Please don't timg all your images. It's annoying to expand them one by one Fixed! I originally changed them from regular tags since I thought it might be useful to compare to each other, but you can't really see enough at small sizes for it to make a difference. CatsPajamas posted:This looks neat, Kangra! I'm a big fan of games like this, but I haven't heard of Imperialism before. I'm looking forward to seeing this LP, and if the game looks good I might get it myself. There will be more later, definitely. I'm being vague now because the details are better explained as the game develops. On Normal difficulty we can survive a 'sub-optimal' choice more easily anyway. About the only thing I will add is that aggression tends to be problematic more often than not. If you think of this as a proto-Paradox game [which is definitely what it is] then that gets the idea across. Still open to country names, but I do like the idea of using the random one as it will 'match' our province and military leader names (which we aren't able to choose). Kangra fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Mar 18, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 02:48
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Purple, I want a challenge 
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Mar 18, 2015 02:51
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Yellow
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Mar 18, 2015 03:02
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Jeebus, look at all that cattle in Yellow. Steak every night. Go Orange though. As far as a name goes, while a goon-based pun might be amusing, the random ones are fine.
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Mar 18, 2015 03:26
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Let the world be ruled by the house of Orange!
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Mar 18, 2015 03:31
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Light Blue!
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Mar 18, 2015 03:33
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Better Red than dead.
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Mar 18, 2015 03:38
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I vote for Orange. And I think the random names would be best.
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Mar 18, 2015 04:14
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I vote Orange and for a random name as well!
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Mar 18, 2015 04:19
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I like Light Blue
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Mar 18, 2015 04:22
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Purple. It'll be epic.
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Mar 18, 2015 04:35
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Yellow looks good to me!
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Mar 18, 2015 05:01
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We all know island nations run the best empires  ! Green!
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Mar 18, 2015 05:29
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I'm feeling Yellow.
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Mar 18, 2015 07:13
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Yellow
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Mar 18, 2015 15:14
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Actually axe that, the purples have arrived! For the Purple Goon Empire! Jeans fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Mar 19, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 15:25
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Yellow sounds good. I absolutely love both this game and Imperialism 2. I find playing Imp2 more fun even though Imp1 is actually the better game in many ways. I just suck at Imp1 too much.
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Mar 18, 2015 17:41
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Yellow looks good to me.
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Mar 18, 2015 17:51
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Voting for the Purple Country named Goonland. This thread is going to be very interesting.
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Mar 18, 2015 22:35
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Orange because it looks a bit like a willy.
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Mar 18, 2015 23:37
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Yellow looks like a pleasant place.
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Mar 19, 2015 00:04
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Naval shenanigans look fun, go purple.
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Mar 19, 2015 00:17
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Green for Ireland. It's the Irish turn to do the imperialism now fuckers!
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Mar 19, 2015 00:25
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I loved this game growing up, go PURPLE!
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Mar 19, 2015 02:09
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The Purple Empire of Viatrix.
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Mar 19, 2015 02:24
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Purple, because making the lives of LPers difficult is a long and proud tradition here.
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Mar 19, 2015 02:28
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Yellow looks like a good choice.
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Mar 19, 2015 02:41
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MinorRed posted:Yellow looks like a good choice. Yellow, purple, and light blue all seem interesting to me, but I am going to pick Dark Blue because having a powderkeg border sounds like a lot of fun. edit: Also throwing in another vote for random name generation, if that'll get us a name that matches our "culture". Yaoi Gagarin fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Mar 19, 2015 |
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Mar 19, 2015 09:23
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Voting will close in a few hours so I can get a start on this tonight, otherwise I'd have to wait until after this weekend. It's still a pretty close race - Yellow & Purple seem to have the lead but Orange and the Blues are not out of the running!
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Mar 19, 2015 17:24
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VostokProgram posted:I am going to pick Dark Blue because having a powderkeg border sounds like a lot of fun. This.
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Mar 19, 2015 17:26
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Yellow looks pretty solid I love this game but I am bad at it
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Mar 19, 2015 17:57
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Purple because victory will be all the more sweeter for having to work for it! This game/series is completely new to me, how I missed it I don't know because it looks great. Looking forward to seeing what the gameplay mechanics will be.
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Mar 19, 2015 18:06
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