COO 1880 Rules
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 6:33 pm
Game starts in January 1880
Designed to simulate the 1880-1910 period. It focuses on longer term thinking and payoffs. Players will embody the spirit and character of a historical figure in charge of the affairs of their chosen nation. Unlike previous sims, we will have no players as autocrats or supreme rulers. There will always be a level of authority over the player. Ie. you may be chancellor of Germany with broad mandate, but there is still the Kaiser who must approve of certain actions. The Russian players ultimately similarly need to get the Ok for certain things from the Tsar, according to his royal prerogative. This is to keep things grounded and serve as a realism check so that nonsense wars and implausible diplomatic actions do not occur. More info was about this aspect will be posted within your forums
Recruitment Costs
Army Recruitment
Each nation will have unique "Cost per Combatant" to upkeep and recruit troops listed in your informational area. This also applies to artillery pieces, which are paid per artillery piece. These costs include weapons and crews. Separate stand alone costs for weapons will be listed in your army thread.
Note: Prices listed below are per man recruited:
Mountain Infantry: Reg Inf Cost per Combatant * 5
Regular Infantry: Reg Inf Cost per Combatant * 4
Reserve Infantry: Reg Inf Cost per Combatant * 2.5
Militia/Colonial/Gendarme Infantry: Militia/Colonial Inf Cost per Combatant * 2
Regular Cavalry Regiment: Reg Cav Cost per Combatant * 10
Militia/Colonial/Gendarme Cavalry: Reg Cav Cost per Combatant * 8
Per Artillery Piece (Light): Light Art Cost per Combatant * 3
Per Artillery Piece (Medium): Medium Art Cost per Combatant * 3
Per Artillery Piece (Heavy): Heavy Art Cost per Combatant * 3
Per Artillery Piece (Siege): Heavy Art Cost per Combatant * 5
Per Engineer/Sappers, etc: Engineer Cost per Combatant * 6
NOTE: Guard units cannot be recruited directly. You can make requests to form new regiments from existing soldiers, which may or may not be granted in limited numbers. Engaging your regular soldiers in fighting will more likely result in guards units forming.
NOTE: Everyone has additional third line reserves and militia that can be activate in the event of total mobilization, but for our purposes those will not be tracked, and will only be accessible in total-war-mobilization scenarios.
Navy Recruitment
Ships are purchased based on a "per ton" cost which is unique to each nation. See your private nation information for details. The more you buy, the cheaper this per ton cost is. This represents your shipyards being more experienced, new industry popping up to supply construction materials, more shipyards being built by private firms, etc. As ships become more complicated, this cost may rise.
Army Maintenance
Army maintenance is based on a "Per Combatant Cost" which is unique to each nation. This is a comprehensive cost including pay, food, supply, ammunition for training, and incidental costs. Higher per combatant costs tend to indicate higher combat effectiveness, however it may not always be the case, and it will not be a linear scale - A £95 combatant will not automatically be a 35% better soldier than a £70 combatant. There are many factors to the performance of soldiers, including morale, leadership, preparations, and culture. Throwing money at a man will not necessarily make him a better soldier.
Soldiers engaged in active military campaign cost twice as much in maintenance.
Ex. If A regular soldier from Italy costs £50 per year, and his sent to invade Albania, he will cost £100 per year. If he is only on campaign for 6 months to subdue the country, then he only costs double for those 6 months. So that is £25 for the 6 months of peace, and £50 for the 6 months of war.
A soldier in occupation who is in an active role, but not actively moving on campaign, costs 1.5 times the peacetime maintenance cost.
Ex. If Italian soldiers need to occupy Albania for a full year after the war is over, due to resistance, that £50 per man becomes £75
Navy Maintenance
Ships cost a yearly maintenance fee which encompasses the following: Officer and sailor pay, food, repairs from regular service, fuel for exercises, and other fees incurred from peace time operations. High quality navies - or navies trying to become higher quality - usually cost more. You have to do more training, you do more sailing around, you burn more fuel, your officers demand higher pay, etc. A far flung empire requires more sailing and maintenance to police it.
This fee is paid per ton of active warship and is modified by the below.
Reserve ships have reduced peace time crews which are often on leave with their regular jobs. They are in a semi state of readiness and must have their full crew mobilized in order to reach combat effectiveness. They have an upkeep modifier of .5 and can be activated in relatively short order by paying the other half of the maintenance cost of the ship.
Mothballed ships are typically tied up outside a major shipyard, have no crew, no ammo on board, no fuel on board, and receive minor maintenance to keep them seaworthy. These ships have a modifier of .20 for upkeep and can be activated by paying the other .8 of the yearly maintance. These ships take a while longer to procure a crew, and get it ready for combat. They may or may not be less combat effective after activation due to reduced crew experience, and slightly deteriorated quality of equipment
Weapon Generations
Weapons underwent significant changes in this era. You have juxtaposition of some countries utilizing weapons side by side where one cannon might be unchanged since the times of napoleon, where others are advanced breechloading type weapons. In order to avoid tremendous administration workload of researching artillery models, we will assign you generic artillery units. All NEW orders or artillery must specify what model and caliber. There are only two generations at start but as the game progresses, new designs may transcend the below categories as good hydraulic recoil and better metallurgy develops.
Pre-1870 Artillery - Older, usually muzzleloading, but very rarely breachloading . Slower to load and make ready, less advanced shells. The lowest grade available.
Modern Artillery - Newer, usually breechloading, sometimes muzzleloading. Uses easily loaded bags of propellant and advanced type shells. Later pieces utilize cased powder, spade or recoil brakes, and other advancements in sighting and rate of fire.
Forts
Small Fort Construction Time: 12 Months
Large Fort Construction Time: 24 Months
Small Coastal Fort - 10 Heavy Guns - 175,000
Large Coastal Fort - 20 Heavy Guns - 450,000
Small Land Fort - 4 Heavy Guns, 6 Medium Guns - 200,000
Large Land Fort - 8 Heavy Guns, 12 Medium Guns - 450,000
- If you are a nation which cannot produce heavy artillery, you need to get approval from the admin for final costs to represent importing these arms, also to check plausibility.
- You do not have to pay upkeep on the forts or the weapons.
- You cannot dismount these weapons and use them in your army. That would circumvent the rules and costs that have been finely tuned for balance purposes.
- Your forts are stocked with the best guns you can make at that time. You will have to and should modernize these guns from time to time. A Coastal fort built in 1880 with rifled muzzleloader guns and old shot placement technology would be demolished by a battleship in 1895 with breechloading smokeless 12" guns and modern rangefinders.
- Your fort comes with a skeleton garrison that can operate the guns. If you are stocking it with infantry, you will have to do so from your regular army.
- You can build simple water batteries with no fortifications by sending guns, but you have to recruit these as fully crewed units according to the rules of artillery recruitment, and pay upkeep as artillery units. You get the added bonus of being able to detach them for field work if the need arises, however. Do not abuse this. This is mostly something I would expect to be done in Colonial regions but I could see it possibly happening elsewhere.
Designed to simulate the 1880-1910 period. It focuses on longer term thinking and payoffs. Players will embody the spirit and character of a historical figure in charge of the affairs of their chosen nation. Unlike previous sims, we will have no players as autocrats or supreme rulers. There will always be a level of authority over the player. Ie. you may be chancellor of Germany with broad mandate, but there is still the Kaiser who must approve of certain actions. The Russian players ultimately similarly need to get the Ok for certain things from the Tsar, according to his royal prerogative. This is to keep things grounded and serve as a realism check so that nonsense wars and implausible diplomatic actions do not occur. More info was about this aspect will be posted within your forums
Recruitment Costs
Army Recruitment
Each nation will have unique "Cost per Combatant" to upkeep and recruit troops listed in your informational area. This also applies to artillery pieces, which are paid per artillery piece. These costs include weapons and crews. Separate stand alone costs for weapons will be listed in your army thread.
Note: Prices listed below are per man recruited:
Mountain Infantry: Reg Inf Cost per Combatant * 5
Regular Infantry: Reg Inf Cost per Combatant * 4
Reserve Infantry: Reg Inf Cost per Combatant * 2.5
Militia/Colonial/Gendarme Infantry: Militia/Colonial Inf Cost per Combatant * 2
Regular Cavalry Regiment: Reg Cav Cost per Combatant * 10
Militia/Colonial/Gendarme Cavalry: Reg Cav Cost per Combatant * 8
Per Artillery Piece (Light): Light Art Cost per Combatant * 3
Per Artillery Piece (Medium): Medium Art Cost per Combatant * 3
Per Artillery Piece (Heavy): Heavy Art Cost per Combatant * 3
Per Artillery Piece (Siege): Heavy Art Cost per Combatant * 5
Per Engineer/Sappers, etc: Engineer Cost per Combatant * 6
NOTE: Guard units cannot be recruited directly. You can make requests to form new regiments from existing soldiers, which may or may not be granted in limited numbers. Engaging your regular soldiers in fighting will more likely result in guards units forming.
NOTE: Everyone has additional third line reserves and militia that can be activate in the event of total mobilization, but for our purposes those will not be tracked, and will only be accessible in total-war-mobilization scenarios.
Navy Recruitment
Ships are purchased based on a "per ton" cost which is unique to each nation. See your private nation information for details. The more you buy, the cheaper this per ton cost is. This represents your shipyards being more experienced, new industry popping up to supply construction materials, more shipyards being built by private firms, etc. As ships become more complicated, this cost may rise.
Army Maintenance
Army maintenance is based on a "Per Combatant Cost" which is unique to each nation. This is a comprehensive cost including pay, food, supply, ammunition for training, and incidental costs. Higher per combatant costs tend to indicate higher combat effectiveness, however it may not always be the case, and it will not be a linear scale - A £95 combatant will not automatically be a 35% better soldier than a £70 combatant. There are many factors to the performance of soldiers, including morale, leadership, preparations, and culture. Throwing money at a man will not necessarily make him a better soldier.
Soldiers engaged in active military campaign cost twice as much in maintenance.
Ex. If A regular soldier from Italy costs £50 per year, and his sent to invade Albania, he will cost £100 per year. If he is only on campaign for 6 months to subdue the country, then he only costs double for those 6 months. So that is £25 for the 6 months of peace, and £50 for the 6 months of war.
A soldier in occupation who is in an active role, but not actively moving on campaign, costs 1.5 times the peacetime maintenance cost.
Ex. If Italian soldiers need to occupy Albania for a full year after the war is over, due to resistance, that £50 per man becomes £75
Navy Maintenance
Ships cost a yearly maintenance fee which encompasses the following: Officer and sailor pay, food, repairs from regular service, fuel for exercises, and other fees incurred from peace time operations. High quality navies - or navies trying to become higher quality - usually cost more. You have to do more training, you do more sailing around, you burn more fuel, your officers demand higher pay, etc. A far flung empire requires more sailing and maintenance to police it.
This fee is paid per ton of active warship and is modified by the below.
Reserve ships have reduced peace time crews which are often on leave with their regular jobs. They are in a semi state of readiness and must have their full crew mobilized in order to reach combat effectiveness. They have an upkeep modifier of .5 and can be activated in relatively short order by paying the other half of the maintenance cost of the ship.
Mothballed ships are typically tied up outside a major shipyard, have no crew, no ammo on board, no fuel on board, and receive minor maintenance to keep them seaworthy. These ships have a modifier of .20 for upkeep and can be activated by paying the other .8 of the yearly maintance. These ships take a while longer to procure a crew, and get it ready for combat. They may or may not be less combat effective after activation due to reduced crew experience, and slightly deteriorated quality of equipment
Weapon Generations
Weapons underwent significant changes in this era. You have juxtaposition of some countries utilizing weapons side by side where one cannon might be unchanged since the times of napoleon, where others are advanced breechloading type weapons. In order to avoid tremendous administration workload of researching artillery models, we will assign you generic artillery units. All NEW orders or artillery must specify what model and caliber. There are only two generations at start but as the game progresses, new designs may transcend the below categories as good hydraulic recoil and better metallurgy develops.
Pre-1870 Artillery - Older, usually muzzleloading, but very rarely breachloading . Slower to load and make ready, less advanced shells. The lowest grade available.
Modern Artillery - Newer, usually breechloading, sometimes muzzleloading. Uses easily loaded bags of propellant and advanced type shells. Later pieces utilize cased powder, spade or recoil brakes, and other advancements in sighting and rate of fire.
Forts
Small Fort Construction Time: 12 Months
Large Fort Construction Time: 24 Months
Small Coastal Fort - 10 Heavy Guns - 175,000
Large Coastal Fort - 20 Heavy Guns - 450,000
Small Land Fort - 4 Heavy Guns, 6 Medium Guns - 200,000
Large Land Fort - 8 Heavy Guns, 12 Medium Guns - 450,000
- If you are a nation which cannot produce heavy artillery, you need to get approval from the admin for final costs to represent importing these arms, also to check plausibility.
- You do not have to pay upkeep on the forts or the weapons.
- You cannot dismount these weapons and use them in your army. That would circumvent the rules and costs that have been finely tuned for balance purposes.
- Your forts are stocked with the best guns you can make at that time. You will have to and should modernize these guns from time to time. A Coastal fort built in 1880 with rifled muzzleloader guns and old shot placement technology would be demolished by a battleship in 1895 with breechloading smokeless 12" guns and modern rangefinders.
- Your fort comes with a skeleton garrison that can operate the guns. If you are stocking it with infantry, you will have to do so from your regular army.
- You can build simple water batteries with no fortifications by sending guns, but you have to recruit these as fully crewed units according to the rules of artillery recruitment, and pay upkeep as artillery units. You get the added bonus of being able to detach them for field work if the need arises, however. Do not abuse this. This is mostly something I would expect to be done in Colonial regions but I could see it possibly happening elsewhere.