From the cool blue waters of the west I turn my attention eastwards, where the Yellow Peril lurks around its eponymous sea:

Lazuli Dragon : Blayne’s choice of Venice in CK was notoriously a placeholder; now that the map allows it he has returned to his beloved China and set about unifying All Under Heaven. He is playing the aptly-named Large idea set, optimised for wide play with bonuses to state number, force limit, and coring. He also has Mughal Artillery , Guns of Urban , Polish Crown , and Danish Subject Loyalty Splendor bonuses. With that build he almost has no choice but to expand, and already every other player in the region is his tributary – although I note that Korea does not, in fact, pay any actual tribute, and it may be worth asking the extent to which that particular tail may not only wag, but actually comprise, the dragon. Whatever the case there, Blayne clearly has no intention of suffering any Unequal Treaties or Great Occupations in this timeline.

: Blayne’s choice of Venice in CK was notoriously a placeholder; now that the map allows it he has returned to his beloved China and set about unifying All Under Heaven. He is playing the aptly-named idea set, optimised for wide play with bonuses to state number, force limit, and coring. He also has , , , and Splendor bonuses. With that build he almost has no choice but to expand, and already every other player in the region is his tributary – although I note that Korea does not, in fact, pay any actual tribute, and it may be worth asking the extent to which that particular tail may not only wag, but actually comprise, the dragon. Whatever the case there, Blayne clearly has no intention of suffering any Unequal Treaties or Great Occupations in this timeline. Permit Kingdom : Vaniver, playing the Ivering dynasty and the Bretonnian kingdom, scored by far the highest in CK achievement points, but chose to move to Korea rather than build Bretonnia into the Big Blue Blob it by right should have been. He has taken the Scholar idea set, focused on cost reductions; he also has the Prussian Monarchy government, and no less than three late-game Splendor bonuses: French Musketeers , Prussian Discipline , and Dutch Officials . Vaniver’s Korea scares the hell out of skilled players in European Great Powers; this country is the reason Khazaria has snaked its way across Asia, to get in touch and be able to intervene before it becomes unstoppable. Such panic is, however, uncalled for; the scholar-bureaucrats of Korea are already choking on the mountains of paper they generate, and have not even been able to muster the aggression to take their victory card from Jinshi. It appears that they require their generals to get permission before invading people who have good land; presumably also to fill out form P-33 in triplicate before digging a slit trench. Such a country will never be dangerous to a commercially-minded people exposed to the bracing wind of competition, who must innovate just to survive.

: Vaniver, playing the Ivering dynasty and the Bretonnian kingdom, scored by far the highest in CK achievement points, but chose to move to Korea rather than build Bretonnia into the Big Blue Blob it by right should have been. He has taken the idea set, focused on cost reductions; he also has the government, and no less than three late-game Splendor bonuses: , , and . Vaniver’s Korea scares the hell out of skilled players in European Great Powers; this country is the reason Khazaria has snaked its way across Asia, to get in touch and be able to intervene before it becomes unstoppable. Such panic is, however, uncalled for; the scholar-bureaucrats of Korea are already choking on the mountains of paper they generate, and have not even been able to muster the aggression to take their victory card from Jinshi. It appears that they require their generals to get permission before invading people who have good land; presumably also to fill out form P-33 in triplicate before digging a slit trench. Such a country will never be dangerous to a commercially-minded people exposed to the bracing wind of competition, who must innovate just to survive. Fallen Cherry Blossoms: At conversion, Hadogei intended to play Japan, or more particularly Oda; he got the Viking idea set for it, giving it the ability to raid and a strong naval theme; he then added Manchu Banners for extra armies. To allow Japan time to unify, we apply the Divine Wind to it until 1500, by which mainland players may not send armies to the islands unless first attacked. Unfortunately, Hadogei wasn’t able to attend the first session, and Oda was subbed by a player of slightly lesser skill, who found it necessary to raid Korea – breaking the protection of the Divine Wind, and letting the Koreans into the islands before they unified. Hadogei’s move to Hosokawa for the second session came too late; Japan is now a Korean protectorate, and unplayed.

The Yellow Sea in 1576.

It was another quiet session with much colonising, some sort of internal theological dispute in the religion of slaves, and many complaints about the spawn location of the printing press:

Small Colonial Wars : James Craig has taken over Atlassia’s colony of Elysium and equipped it with the Imperialist idea set and the Dutch Republic government; he soon demonstrated the aptness of the idea set by attacking Golle’s colonial nation British Columbia and managing to annex it fully before Golle could master the game interface sufficiently to interfere. Ranger’s other colonial nation, Mu, was apparently inspired by this success into attacking both my CN Vinland and Golle’s other colony, Canada; however, in these cases no player intervention was necessary, since both these two colonies had three times the army of the Greek colony. Mu’s core in Newfoundland has been annexed to Canada, with the island Anticosti going to Vinland.

: James Craig has taken over Atlassia’s colony of Elysium and equipped it with the idea set and the government; he soon demonstrated the aptness of the idea set by attacking Golle’s colonial nation British Columbia and managing to annex it fully before Golle could master the game interface sufficiently to interfere. Ranger’s other colonial nation, Mu, was apparently inspired by this success into attacking both my CN Vinland and Golle’s other colony, Canada; however, in these cases no player intervention was necessary, since both these two colonies had three times the army of the Greek colony. Mu’s core in Newfoundland has been annexed to Canada, with the island Anticosti going to Vinland. Probe Majorem : The followers of the White Christ appear to have gotten themselves into a dispute about how many angels can pass through the eye of a needle, or possibly it was how many rich men can dance on a camel? To be honest it was a bit abstruse to me, but anyway, the upshot seems to be that Occitania, Britain, Khazaria, and Medina are in the faction holding that camels are valuable for their works alone; the Latin Empire has formed its own splinter faction which asserts that people become rich by the grace of God, and Leon and Bohemia remain firm in their old-school belief that churches should be built out of rocks. Religious map of Europe, 1576. Note the pagan north and south, and Druze Persia!

: The followers of the White Christ appear to have gotten themselves into a dispute about how many angels can pass through the eye of a needle, or possibly it was how many rich men can dance on a camel? To be honest it was a bit abstruse to me, but anyway, the upshot seems to be that Occitania, Britain, Khazaria, and Medina are in the faction holding that camels are valuable for their works alone; the Latin Empire has formed its own splinter faction which asserts that people become rich by the grace of God, and Leon and Bohemia remain firm in their old-school belief that churches should be built out of rocks. Trademark Litigation : In this iteration of the Great Games, the multiplayer megacampaigns that have been my principal hobby for lo these fifteen years – I wrote the first fan-made savegame converter, from Crusader Kings 1 to Europa Universalis 2, in 2004 (in Java, and because I didn’t understand parsing it sucked to maintain) – I am counted a Great Power, mainly due to inheriting the Scandinavian empire that Clone created. That hasn’t always been the case; I’ve usually played much more minor powers, and when I’ve come out on top it’s been due to persistence and luck more than skill. (Really, it’s amazing how much you can achieve by just showing up every session). So it has often happened that someone has declared war on me and taken half my land, or even all my land. These things will happen, and usually do not ruffle my good cheer or my steely determination to burn the offender’s capital to the ground. Likewise it is inevitable, over a long enough sequence of games, that one will occasionally be on the receiving end of the big battalions; such is the nature of wargames. And of course, in a wargame that includes nuclear weapons, I have sometimes commanded armies that quickly became radioactive dust; as a general rule I do not allow this to affect me, since splitting the atom is a game that two can play. But then, every so often, I will be playing a trading nation, and someone will interfere with my profits. And then, gentle readers; then I remember that I am, in fact, descended from men who gnawed the edges of their shields and made Europe tremble with the fear of their fury. So you will understand that, when for the second time I caught Bohemians selling cheap, shoddy knockoffs of my trademarked “Model Yngling Longship”, hand-carved by passionate interns from seasoned oak, with striped sail, separate mast, and detachable dragon figurehead, only three ducats, immensely popular with kids of all ages, order now to get yours in time for the midwinter gift-exchange of your choice… Ahem. Shoddy knockoffs, I say, of my trademarks, known ingame as “Slandering Merchants”; I have a memory of looking at the -10% trade power modifier, and then the next thing I recall is ordering the guns to bombard Bohemia’s capital. Looking at the map I see that I must have besieged at least two fortresses to get there, but I have no memory of doing so, and to the extent that any Bohemian armies were indiscriminately slaughtered to the last man, their officers hung from oaken trees in Odin’s honour, and the population of five provinces offered internships, I can only apologise, while noting that I was somewhat provoked. Once I came out of my rage I offered fairly lenient terms, taking only the three provinces that were missing to complete my Baltic shore; Bohemia is now landlocked, and the Baltic is an Yngling lake.

: In this iteration of the Great Games, the multiplayer megacampaigns that have been my principal hobby for lo these fifteen years – I wrote the first fan-made savegame converter, from Crusader Kings 1 to Europa Universalis 2, in 2004 (in Java, and because I didn’t understand parsing it sucked to maintain) – I am counted a Great Power, mainly due to inheriting the Scandinavian empire that Clone created. That hasn’t always been the case; I’ve usually played much more minor powers, and when I’ve come out on top it’s been due to persistence and luck more than skill. (Really, it’s amazing how much you can achieve by just showing up every session). So it has often happened that someone has declared war on me and taken half my land, or even all my land. These things will happen, and usually do not ruffle my good cheer or my steely determination to burn the offender’s capital to the ground. Likewise it is inevitable, over a long enough sequence of games, that one will occasionally be on the receiving end of the big battalions; such is the nature of wargames. And of course, in a wargame that includes nuclear weapons, I have sometimes commanded armies that quickly became radioactive dust; as a general rule I do not allow this to affect me, since splitting the atom is a game that two can play. But then, every so often, I will be playing a trading nation, and someone will interfere with my profits. And then, gentle readers; then I remember that I am, in fact, descended from men who gnawed the edges of their shields and made Europe tremble with the fear of their fury. So you will understand that, when for the second time I caught Bohemians selling cheap, shoddy knockoffs of my trademarked “Model Yngling Longship”, hand-carved by passionate interns from seasoned oak, with striped sail, separate mast, and detachable dragon figurehead, only three ducats, immensely popular with kids of all ages, order now to get yours in time for the midwinter gift-exchange of your choice… Ahem. Shoddy knockoffs, I say, of my trademarks, known ingame as “Slandering Merchants”; I have a memory of looking at the -10% trade power modifier, and then the next thing I recall is ordering the guns to bombard Bohemia’s capital. Looking at the map I see that I must have besieged at least two fortresses to get there, but I have no memory of doing so, and to the extent that any Bohemian armies were indiscriminately slaughtered to the last man, their officers hung from oaken trees in Odin’s honour, and the population of five provinces offered internships, I can only apologise, while noting that I was somewhat provoked. Once I came out of my rage I offered fairly lenient terms, taking only the three provinces that were missing to complete my Baltic shore; Bohemia is now landlocked, and the Baltic is an Yngling lake. Am I Not A Man and A Brother: Between sessions, there has been some discussion of whether James will abolish slavery, and of what impact that might have on the global economy. I have no strong opinion on that, but wish to note that Yngl, Inc, is far too progressive and advanced to have any truck with these relics of the first millennium; there have been no slaves in the Ynglinga Rike since 983, when we invented the internship. And even before that, the long ships have been rowed by free men since as early as 925, when we first began granting athletic scholarship contracts.

Between sessions, there has been some discussion of whether James will abolish slavery, and of what impact that might have on the global economy. I have no strong opinion on that, but wish to note that Yngl, Inc, is far too progressive and advanced to have any truck with these relics of the first millennium; there have been no slaves in the Ynglinga Rike since 983, when we invented the internship. And even before that, the long ships have been rowed by free men since as early as 925, when we first began granting athletic scholarship contracts. Fire and the Sword: Further in offline discussion, there was a suggestion that the Dutch Republic would have been a more thematic government for the Ynglings than the English Monarchy I actually ended up with, which is true, but by the time it was up for auction James was able to bid more mana than I had left. However, in the ensuing discussion Vaniver noted, and I quote, that “Parliaments are basically a Norse thing”. Vaniver claims that this pun, or play on words, was in fact unintentional on his part. I say that, if so, it was reckless negligence and no less culpable than if he had planned it for a month, and that flattening Hanyeong in retaliation, with nukes if necessary, is nothing more than simple self-defense.

European players, 1576, showing also the current Great Power ranking. I would be fourth if I could just get the pesky printing press into my Finnish and northern backwaters, but even allowing for that I have fallen somewhat behind the top three.

Atlantic borders; blobbification is now sufficiently complete that the political map at least in Europe approximates pretty well to the player map, but they’re not yet identical. Also my final two national ideas, the powerful artillery kickers and the land fire damage ambition that complements it.