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[Weirdsound]

Or 3 general worlds

[monk12]

Nope, they're replaced every turn and need someone to supply them in order to actually be operable.  Interesting that the previous Emperor created a system that would leave him powerless if his Archons abandoned him.

The previous Emperor did not, in fact, create this system.

The Archonate arose as part of the terms of the Wraithers joining the Empire (and ending all that war that was going on.) It seems likely that the roots of the system started then, since the Wraithers would not want to join a governmental system that completely stripped them of power (leaving them vulnerable to reprisals and oppression.) Later, the shipyard ban came after the Wraithers attempted to secede from the Empire, and were nearly successful since they had so many Shipyard worlds. The ban came into effect after that war, and was likely the result of compromise between the Emperor (who would have wanted Imperial-run everything) and the Archons (who would have wanted to maintain at least some measure of independence, less the Empire turn into a tyranny.) And all this occurred about 750 years before the game started.

The "guy who runs the army / guys who feed the army" power balance is pretty common throughout history, IRL. It's pretty much the foundation for any constitutional monarchy, and constitutional governments in general.

Yes I've read the backstory of this game a couple times, why do you ask?

[Alexandria]

(( Mmmmm that really doesn't fit my people at all, in fact it goes entirely against them. But nothing I can do about it. ))

[GreatWyrmGold]

They sure sound violent and...what's the right word...not-getting-along-well-with-others...I'd say selfish but I don't want to anger the murderous robots...

[Iituem]

Rolepgeek: Building the Forgeworld changed your Resource amounts, so you can only contribute 4 Morale to the Empire instead of 5; the net result of the Forgeworld is +2 Supply, -1 Military, -1 Intelligence, -1 Morale.  Specialist worlds are not efficient in terms of total production.

Question Responses

The Emperor can amend the constitution unilaterally, at least in theory.  Emperor Vindik Carrowspiel attempted this to give himself absolute power and demanded all Archons' resources for his own gain.  He swiftly found himself facing a massive noble revolt and changed his mind.

It is quite possible to force an Emperor to adopt a more balanced constitution, but the Imperial stranglehold on shipyard worlds has (to date) prevented this from happening.

The Emperor does not so much have increased say in the Council as can utterly ignore the Council if he chooses (at the risk of alienating the Archons).  When an Emperor is on the throne, the Council serves an advisory capacity rather than a legislative one.  It is possible to amend the constitution so that this is not the case, or to create a smaller Cabinet from selected Archons that he must listen to, and so on and so forth.

Imperial Worlds do add to the Emperor's Prestige for score purposes, and if a constitution demanded voting even when an Emperor was in power then it could add to it for voting purposes as well.  The proposed laws to amend Prestige are entirely acceptable, but I am imposing a hard mechanical limit of no more than 5 Prestige per world, 2 Prestige per specialist given up to the Empire and 1 Prestige per Resource devoted to the Empire.

Nope, they're replaced every turn and need someone to supply them in order to actually be operable.  Interesting that the previous Emperor created a system that would leave him powerless if his Archons abandoned him.

The previous Emperor did not, in fact, create this system.

The Archonate arose as part of the terms of the Wraithers joining the Empire (and ending all that war that was going on.) It seems likely that the roots of the system started then, since the Wraithers would not want to join a governmental system that completely stripped them of power (leaving them vulnerable to reprisals and oppression.) Later, the shipyard ban came after the Wraithers attempted to secede from the Empire, and were nearly successful since they had so many Shipyard worlds. The ban came into effect after that war, and was likely the result of compromise between the Emperor (who would have wanted Imperial-run everything) and the Archons (who would have wanted to maintain at least some measure of independence, less the Empire turn into a tyranny.) And all this occurred about 750 years before the game started.

The "guy who runs the army / guys who feed the army" power balance is pretty common throughout history, IRL. It's pretty much the foundation for any constitutional monarchy, and constitutional governments in general.

Yes I've read the backstory of this game a couple times, why do you ask?

Got it in one.  The system is not optimal for either party, and that is as a result of carefully weighted compromise.  It held for hundreds of years because the Emperors gambled that only a minority of Archons would revolt at once.  So long as he had enough loyalists on-side to supply his shipyards, he was guaranteed a win.

And to clarify...

Shipyard: Creates/Maintains 3 Ships.
Forgeworld: Creates 3 Supply/Turn.  Supply is used up each turn and cannot be stockpiled.

1000 IR Q1 - 15 Imperial ships are built.  They are supplied by 15 Supply.  In various battles, 7 ships are lost.  A Forgeworld is lost, reducing Supply to 12.
1000 IR Q2 - 7 Imperial ships are built, bringing the total back to 15.  However, only 12 Supply is available.  Only 12 ships are able to fight in battles.  No ships are lost, and the Forgeworld is taken back.
1000 IR Q3 - No new ships are built, so the total stays at 15 (the shipyards are too busy doing maintenance on the fully-sized fleet to construct new ones).  15 Supply is available, so all 15 ships are in play.  14 ships are lost in battle, and a Shipyard is won.
1000 IR Q4 - 17 ships are built, taking the total to 18 (for 6 Shipyards).  Only 15 Supply is available, so still only 15 ships fight in the wars.

Leafsnail, Shoot, Ardas, you're in.  This brings us to a slightly thorny issue.

Before the arrival of Leaf, Shoot and Ardas, House Crow has the necessary 6 votes for the Emperorship.  Shall I declare that these three Archons had not yet accessed the Council Mainframe (and therefore weren't eligible to vote) when this was taken, or delay the vote to allow further voting on the new Emperor?

[Alexandria]

We're not robots lol, my people would never have rebelled against an emperor.


Well I say just go for it and treat them as Archons who arrived late for some reason, given that we have 6 agreeing and 1 abstain even with 3 new players what are the odds that he'll actually lose?

[GreatWyrmGold]

That was the Silicon Oni, my bad.

Your guys are still artificial, though, IIRC. And I don't want them angry.

[Rolepgeek]

If two of them abstain or vote against, he loses.

Also, I know they aren't efficient, I just don't care about morale or ground troops. Not really, anyway.

Alexandria, you aren't robots, so you change over time. Different ideals and motivations at different times.

[monk12]

(( Mmmmm that really doesn't fit my people at all, in fact it goes entirely against them. But nothing I can do about it. ))

Oh, it was 800 years ago; different time, different place! That's like saying America is a nation of Slavers since that's how we rolled not 200 years ago! And I'm sure it wasn't just the Wraithers who didn't want to be squashed by the Empire. After all, Humanity just got done committing several genocides in a row; the Archonate system is a clever way to incorporate all those races into one governmental body without having to conquer/exterminate most of them first (see also: basically all of the major non-human races joined in this way, and probably pushed hard for the Archonate along with the slew of minor races.)

ninja'd by GM:

Oooh, the Empire DOES have more power than I had thought. Important to remember.

[Rolepgeek]

Hmmm. I sure hopes he listens to the Council, and puts proposals that get votes into place, and doesn't with ones that don't. Otherwise, people could get upset at being ignored. Just saying.

[monk12]

Hmmm. I sure hopes he listens to the Council, and puts proposals that get votes into place, and doesn't with ones that don't. Otherwise, people could get upset at being ignored. Just saying.

There's assassination rules for a reason! Not that I would ever contemplate such a dirty, underhanded action myself, of course.

[Iituem]

I've tallied the votes and taken it as read; All Hail Emperor Eldred Crow!

[a1s]

Hmmm. I sure hopes he listens to the Council, and puts proposals that get votes into place, and doesn't with ones that don't. Otherwise, people could get upset at being ignored. Just saying.

The whole point of an Emperor is that decisions are made quickly without the need for a vote. If the decisions are wrong we might assassinate him post hoc, but in the meantime we get the efficiency of things being done quickly.

[Rolepgeek]

Right, I'm just saying that meanwhile, we'll all be shooting the shit and arguing about stuff, and it's his responsibility to keep an imperial eye on that.

[a1s]

is morale assigned to planets or to sectors?