The Great Game XV: Big Picture

Here I step back from the saga for a moment and take a look at the situation in game terms. Maps!

Commenting on other people’s blogs

Because Ms McArdle’s comment system seems to be a bit broken, I will have to do my commenting here, although – alas – I fear this means at least a three-orders-of-magnitude drop in the number of people who see my deathless prose and sparkling wit. At any rate, I’d like to point out that this:
Who [...]

There Will Be War: Orphan I

The first of two orphaned posts that had to be retconned out when There Will Be War was rebooted. So, this is not canon, but I include it for completeness.

Dispersion and civil defense

I am reading “Warday”, a book about the aftermath of a nuclear exchange between US and USSR, and a thought struck me. Back in the first part of the Cold War, people were thinking about how to minimise casualties from the Big One, and of course the best way to survive a nuke is to [...]

The Great Game XIV: Recovery

Another war with Germany, reducing the former first power to penury and giving me some nice loot. Also the first breath of Polish intrigues in Russia, of which we shall hear more.

There Will Be War: Westmen Rising

Now we come to the meat of the matter! Some explanation is required here. The first thing I did was to get King Olaf married to a German woman. Unfortunately, there is a bug in CK which strikes very rarely: It is sometimes possible for a ruler to accept two marriage offers at the same [...]

Lotteries

We all know that lotteries are a really terrible investment strategy. There are various theories for why people buy tickets anyway; the two main ones are

People are stupid and can’t do math.
People are not buying an investment, they’re buying a few moments’ thrill and excitement.

Both these theories seem pretty good to me, [...]

The Great Game XIII: Halkjell Yngling

Now begins a period in which I am able to lift Norway out of the mud by dint of having excellent kings, and by playing one powerful player kingdom against another, building coalitions in which tiny Norway is the weight in the balance. In this session is born the first of the line of superb [...]

Book review: Turtledove

I’m not generally a great fan of Turtledove, but I found “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” for a dollar in a clearance section, and eh, the price was right. I was pleasantly surprised: It seems the good professor has taken his critics to heart, and cut back a bit on the repetition. A good [...]

The Great Game XI: More wars in Germany

A stubborn sort is the AI, and not very bright. Note also the dangerous madman in my court; courtiers who gain the trait ‘Schizophrenic’ are prone to all kinds of dangerous behaviour, like killing people at random. Fortunately they usually die off quickly.