Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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Don't we pity the poor civilians
Sitting beside the fire ?
Oh! Oh! Oh! It's a lovely war,
Who wouldn't be a soldier, eh?
Oh, it's a shame to take the pay.


The Confederation War


By the Grace of God, the Timeline diverged in 1756.

With the help of the Angels, the forces of the British-Prussian Coalition won a total and complete victory over the Hapsburg-French alliance. The French, ejected from the American and Indian continents, retreated to Europe to lick their wounds as the Protestant nations stand in triumph over the World. Discontent over taxes levied against the colonists boiled over in British North America, leading to a thirteen year insurgency dubbed the 'American Insurrection.' The British won this without little contest, and with the final defeat of the rebel General Washington at Yorktown, the Insurrection ended.

In 1789, with the British Parliament eager to rebuild relations with the American colonies, a compromise was reached between the British and North Americans. The terms agreed would be formalized with the Dominion Act of 1789, pardoning the surviving Insurrections and organizing the disparate American colonies - from Canada to the Caribbean - into the unified Dominion of North America.

Across the waves in Europe, the 'Great Confrontation' between the Kingdom of France and the United Kingdom would continue. Removed from North America and India, France focused its efforts on the Continent to thwart British influence. The first to fall would be the United Provinces of the Netherlands, brought into an alliance with the French through force of arms. The coalition between the Catholic Empires of France and Austria would remain fast.

In 1848, the Springtime of Nations wracked Middle-Europe. The eternal Hapsburg Empire, which had survived the Crusades, the Thirty Years' War, and the horrific Seven Years' War, was dissolved by revolutionaries marching through Vienna. The Hapsburgs not only lost the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, but also the Crown of St. Stephen and their Hungarian possessions. The rump Empire, weakened by still a force to be reckoned with, entered into a Confederation with the Prussian King and the countless dukes and princes of the former Empire.

The Confederation went to war for Schleswig-Holstein in 1851, liberating it from Danish rule, but grew increasingly weak in the face of tension between the Protestant north and Catholic south, which organized into blocs led by the two superior powers of the Austrians and the Prussians.

In 1853, the Russians attempted to force their influence over the Ottoman Empire for the rights of the Christians within the Holy Land. A gunboat flotilla was sent to the Dardanelles to force a settlement with the Sublime Porte, igniting the Crimean War - otherwise known as the Eastern Crisis. The French and the British, typically aligned against each other, allied temporarily to thwart the growing Russian menace. Even the Papal States, typically silent in Rome, called all Christians to arms in a Crusade against the Third Rome.

The chaos of the Eastern Crisis brought about the independence of the Balkans, the re-institution of the Roman Empire, led by the Greeks, and the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire. In the Treaty of Vienna, signed in 1856, Russia's position in the Levant was repuidated, their American colony in Alyaska was lost to the British, and Franco-British protectorates were established in the Holy Land and Egypt, respectively.

1861 saw the beginning of the American Brothers' War, caused by the underlying tension of the Southern Provinces following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1828 and the transportation of the former slaves to British West Africa. The American Republic rose up in defiance of British rule, leading to four years of bitter warfare between the Northern Provinces and the rest of the Empire. The fledgling Republic was aided by the Commonwealth of Texas - an independent Anglo-Saxon Republic formed in the wake of the revolution against Mexico in 1836 - and the Kingdom of France. However, the strength of the Royal Navy and the North American Army forced the Republic to capitulate, and ended the dream of the Americans for self-rule for the foreseeable future.

The year is now 1905, and Europe is holding its breath and all eyes look towards the German Confederation with apprehension and dread. It has been more than a century since a major war has ravaged Europe, and as the North Germans and South Germans align themselves and ready themselves for the final showdown over who will unify Germany, it is looking as though another will erupt in the same place where it started in 1756.


Bloody, drunk with madness,
You may cry, you may moan!
Oh! My native land!
What have you done to her?

Explanation


This roleplay takes place in an alternate world, where the British won a total victory over the French and forced them out of North America entirely and won against the American Patriots in the Revolution. The French Revolution never toppled the Bourbons, and Germany was never formed in 1871. Tension exists throughout the world as the great powers of Europe ready themselves for the final confrontation over who will rule. The Protestant powers of Britain, North Germany, and united Scandinavia are aligned against the Catholic alliance of South Germany, France, and Spain. The various bit players, including a disunited Italy (divided between the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Two Sicilies, and the Papal States), the Roman Empire, a resurgent Russian Empire, are ready to pounce and align themselves with whoever will grant them a place in the Sun.

Our story will start in one of the constituent nations, either Britain, Prussia, Austria, or France, as a group of friends before the War breaks out. When the War breaks out, we can choose to sign on to our country's military or to avoid the War. The larger the group, the better, and I think we can play this in many ways that make it world-building and to play a fun military game. There's really a lot of options we can do, and if this takes off we can figure out where we want to start and all that.

I'll do various votes in the OOC to see where we want to take the Confederation War, which will rapidly become our world's Great War, and see where it takes us. I expect Advanced-style posts; I'm not concerned too much about length but more about quality. If you can only write a paragraph, it doesn't bother me so long as it's well-written and provides for others to build off of.

If anyone is interested, please post up. I can build the world more or elaborate on my vision of it.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by LivingQuietly
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This sounds fascinating. I love the idea of un-Revolution industrialised Bourbon France in particular!!
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Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Jamesyco
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Interested.
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Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by CaptainBritton
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Considering the world affairs I have a lot more time to write now. Consider me interested.
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Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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@LivingQuietly@Jamesyco@CaptainBritton Do you all have a preference for what nation we begin in?

There's the British Empire, consisting of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Dominions of West Africa, South Africa, Australasia, and East Africa, as well as the Indian Empire (the British Raj) and a host of crown colonies in Polynesia, Hong Kong, and Ryukyu, as well as Protectorates in Iraq, Jordan, Egypt-Sudan, and elsewhere.

The Kingdom of France, consisting of Metropolitan France, Algeria, Indochina, the French Soudan, and Madagascar.

The North German Alliance, an informal coalition of the North German kingdoms, princely states, and dukedoms like the Kingdom of Prussia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, the Rhineland, and others.

The South German Alliance, another informal coalition headed by Hapsburg Austria (reduced to Austria, Slovenia, Istria, and Bohemia-Moravia), with Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Saxony, and other small duchies and princedoms.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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@Gunther Would you be interested?
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Gunther
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Considering the world affairs I have a lot more time to write now. Consider me interested.


Same here. I live in Massachusetts. The Governor just extended our banishment from public interaction until May 4th. /rollingeyes.
In the US there have been 44,183 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 544 deaths as of March 24th. COVID-19 was introduced into our society about the end of February/ beginning of March. Between October 1, 2019 and 24 March the flu, which we all take for granted now has seen 54,000,000 cases; 710,000 have been hospitalized and 59,000 people have died in the US alone. Will the social distancing experiment prevent COVID-19 from spreading as rapidly as regular flu has this year? would the numbers have been worse without social distancing? Looking at Italy and China it looks pretty rough, but we won't be able to compare because of the social distancing experiment. I don't know. Either way, I'm here for you, bud. @Starboard Watch
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Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Gunther
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I will go with whichever nation you all decide you want to start in. This is my list by priority and why.

1. France: I am American of French descent (dad) and am a Franco-phile. Also, the French had a reputation as being a strong military. They allowed their overconfidence to get the better of them during both WWI and WWII. That overconfidence should be aptly represented in our version of France.
2. United Kingdom: I am American of British descent (mom). English would make this so much easier. Not that we need to speak French in character.
3. Prussia: I speak German and respect the military professionalism of the Prussian elite.
4. Austria: I don't really care. They kill the German language...almost as bad as the Bavarians.
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Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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@Gunther The France of this period is one that is thoroughly consumed with the "Great Confrontation" with Britain. Its socio-political setup resembles in more ways than one the latter stage of the Romanov Russia. An out-of-touch monarch and nobility with crippling civil strife. Their anger against Germany of our timeline is replaced with an ancestral hatred for all things British. The Germans never seized Elsaß-Lothringen/Alsace-Lorraine in our world, so they never came to blows over that.

But in our world, the North Germans are secretly planning to start a war with the French over Elsaß-Lothringen, to drag the whole of the Confederation into a war that they hope will 1) unite all of the Germans and (more importantly for them) 2) push the balance of power against the Austrians and the South Germans. Little do they know that the Hapsburg-led South has made secret overtures and guarantees with France to assist them if the North Germans move to take the province. The North Germans have, in kind, aligned themselves with the British and with the British-aligned Scandinavians to guarantee their seizure of the province if it comes to war.

If we play as France, or any of these countries for that matter, we will play as a group of young noblemen who are all friends in the same social circle, a gentleman's club (not a strip joint!) or something to that effect, who go into service together.
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Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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Here is a brief view (in the form of the national flags) of the major powers of Europe.


Here is the British Empire, and its constituent Dominions and significant Crown Colonies:


And also the Kingdom of France
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Jamesyco
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Choices numbered would be
1. North Germans
2. Dutch
3. French
4. South Germans
5. Serb/Slavs
6. Brits

Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Gunther
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This is a great exercise in character development. The 'boys' hanging out in the pub are naive. They are filled with wonderment of the world around them. They believe they are invincible, but are truthfully frightened little boys clinging to their mother's aprons. Then they are exposed to the horrors of war. They change. How will you grapple with that change? Every person. Every character will react differently.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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This is a great exercise in character development. The 'boys' hanging out in the pub are naive. They are filled with wonderment of the world around them. They believe they are invincible, but are truthfully frightened little boys clinging to their mother's aprons. Then they are exposed to the horrors of war. They change. How will you grapple with that change? Every person. Every character will react differently.


Definitely. The idea is also that they're probably going to be noblemen, foppish sorts. It will certainly be interesting.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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Is anyone still interested in this?
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Jamesyco
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yep, and that just sounds like Quiet on the Western Front
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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So do we want to do France? Or Britain? Or one of the German States? I'm down for any, really.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Jamesyco
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I would say France or one of the German states
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by CaptainBritton
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North Germany is my first choice. France a close second.
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Starboard Watch
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Sounds good to me. Since the consensus seems to point towards us wanting to do the North Germans, I'll go ahead and make an appropriately-themed OOC to fully immerse ourselves within their worldview. As such, the RP will henceforth be known as "Der Bundeskrieg."

I'm going to have us come from Prussia. I believe it makes the most sense since they would by far-and-large be the most dominant force in the North States.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Gunther
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If the current social attitude is based on history, these are the elite Military Übermensch of Europe.
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