Getting Started

## Introduction to the World

As the first world Great War stagnated, the Empires of the world resorted to more and more experimental technologies eager to gain an edge. By 1916, the first tanks had appeared on the battlefield. By 1920, behemoth airships soared over Belgium, while mechanized walkers wrestled below. As the war stretched on and on, the empires became more and more desperate. No one knows who initiated the Deluge, but it was the final innovation - weaponizing the sea herself to destroy their enemies. The resulting year-long chaos ended the war inconclusively though conclusively ended it. It has now been a century, the year 2022, and with the horrors of the World War now in the past many wonder what will the future hold?

## Entering the Game

It is 2022, the world has been flooded by the actions of long dead men, technology has not passed the 1940's albeit with mechanical armies and vast floating airships in the skies. Europe stands ripe for a new golden age, or for conquest by the continent's next great leader. The first thing to understand when starting to play PostWorldPowers is that it is a text-based roleplay game where players play their nations and duke it out over the earth, whether it be through diplomacy and subterfuge or on the battlefield.

Starting out obviously you need a nation, whether it be a prospective tyrannical empire or a hermit state wanting to keep to itself you need a claim. Claims can be whatever you want, within reason, if you want some niche and absurd ideology to come to power that is fine. There are two things you should keep in mind when making your claim:

1. Any mention/use of Nazis or IRL Fascist or Hate movements is banned. Fake fascists and tyrants is allowed (given mod approval) but IRL hate-groups or their leaders is banned.
2. Secondly with your claim remember that PWP is all about playing with other people and creating a joint narrative, so when making your claim while obviously your neighbor has no say over what you want and eventually create its a good idea to create a claim that makes sense. Obviously a claim based around the United States makes little sense in the middle of the Balkans, but if it was the remnants of a US invasion late in the Great War or some crackpot recreating the great nation to emulate its success then that makes sense. tl;dr: create a nation that makes sense and has an iota of immersion and you and others will have a lot more fun.

So lets say you have a claim, the Kingdom of France, a French government led by some Bourbon relative intent on recreating the glory of the former kingdom. Secondly you need a Map of what your claim constitutes. Currently in PWP when claiming you have to make a choice of having less provinces but higher development or higher provinces with less development. Currently those numbers are

1. High Province Claim: 45 provinces, 355 Development Points.
2. High Development Claim: 25 Provinces, 420 Development Points.

In this example the Kingdom of France wants to start a bit tall and be richer then their neighbors so will choose a High Development Claim. Thus we have 25 provinces to make a map. Using the various season maps in the Discord's Maps channel you simply map out your claim (obviously taking care not to take land that's already claimed and in use by another nation). Using all that the Kingdom of France now has a map, at this point remember to right down the province IDs as we will need them later.

Now for a valid claim post we need this map, a national flag (we'll just use the current French Flag), a basic history of the claim, who is in charge and lastly and most importantly a National Abstract. For our lore we can just talk about how our glorious first king took charge of a disorginised french army unit and siezed control of the region during the flooding, founding his kingdom and starting his dynasty. Our current monarch is Louis XVIII and Prime Minister is Phillipe Gerard. Now apart from fluffing up our one sentence of backstory what we need now is to start and finish our abstract.

## National Abstract

The National Abstract is where all the numbers of your country are held and is quite important to be up-to-date and accurate. It holds your armies and what lands your nation is made up of. The abstract is a very tinkered out excel spreadsheet that is found on the subreddit sidebar or on the discord. Continuing this guide and our Kingdom of France example when you first load up the abstract the first things you should do is :

### Province Manager Tab

1. Scroll right to the Region 1 Manager tab and put in the Province ID column those IDs you took from the province map, these determine the population and what strategic resources you have and is very important for the rest of the abstract. Next for the rest of the tabs
	1. The year expanded column is mostly for fluff and for your first provinces feel free to put in whatever year you want.
	2. For the Instability Modifier column your starting provinces are all Core, Core City or Capital City. Feel free to put down cities where you want, whether that be in real life city locations or for fictional cities. Though pay attention you can only have a set amount of cities.
	3. The Production Development Level determines how much investment has been made into the province, The amount you can have at the start of the game is determined by the Claim Province Dev cell do not worry you can build Province Development later (and doing so is quite important for making your nation prosper). The default sheet has allocated the DP already but feel free to change this number later if you want to change it (remember Province Development has diminishing returns so 10 levels of it in one province is less effective then 5 levels in two provinces).
	4. Railroad Development represents your main railroad network and allows for military logistics, trade and economic bonuses. Much like Production Development your nation starts with a set amount. Connecting provinces to your capital gives them a small economic buff so try to ensure your rail network is all connected. For each province you wat railroads in determine the amount needed by this handy guide below.
		1. Railroad across flat or rugged terrain: 1 PDEV/province
		2. Railroad across hills: 2 PDEV/province
		3. Railroad across mountains: 3 PDEV/province
		4. Railroad Bridge over river: 1 extra PDEV on each side of the river (over and above that specified above)
		5. Railroad tunnel under impassable mountains: 1 extra PDEV on each side of the Mountain range (over and above that specified above)
		6. Ports cost 3 PDEV per port. If you wish to connect a port to a rail network you must also build a railroad in the province with the port.
	5. Port Development level is where your ports and docks are. Ports are where trade connects. Docks are cheaper and are only for connecting logistics and connecting to the capital.
		1. Ports cost 3 PDEV per port. If you wish to connect a port to a rail network you must also build a railroad in the province with the port.
		2. You can also build a 'Dock' by placing 1 PDEV in the Port column. A Dock allows the province to connect to a Port you control on the same River or in the same sea zone. Docks can allow for a connection to a capital to give an econ boost, and they allow for military supply, but they cannot be used for bulk (international) trade.
	6. The connected to capital tick box is ticked when the province is connected via rail or ports/docks to the capital of your nation. This gives an economic buff.
	7. Province Production Type is where you determine what the province makes. Set these out by looking at them and the Economy Tab and seeing what your nations needs and what it has too much off, remember though you still have an armed forces to consider the costs off. As for a simple guide, Cities can produce a lot of Industrial or Construction goods while simple non-city provinces produce a lot of Food and Fuel.
	8. Next are your Army/Air/Naval Bases, Forts and Anti-Air installations. Navies can only be based in Naval Bases, Air flotillas can only be based in Cities, Forts or Air Bases. Also military units can only be spawned in military bases so keep that in mind when placing them. As well Naval and Air bases increase the amount of planes or ships you can make. At game start you can have one of each base and 10 levels of Forts/AA. You do not need to have all of them as remember they cost money and resources in upkeep (though it is cheaper to start with them then build them later, so it is advised to have some forts on borders you expect to fight on or at your capital).
	9. The Regional Infrastructure tab is for specialty infrastructure which can be built if you have the necessary population required.

### National Traits Tab

National Traits are the traits that represent your nations culture, what characteristics your people value and uphold. These traits affect parts of your nation, a nation that is Industrialist will obviously prioritise Industrial and Construction Goods while an Ecologist nation will make more food. You can have up to 8 trait points, generally most claims will have two strong traits (6 points) and two weak treats (2 points). For our Kingdom of France it will be a Strong Nationalist and Militarist claim due to its military heritage and strong aims to restore France whole. It will have the Weak Industrialist and Modern traits, representing its look to the future and focus on rebuilding after the floods. You can change traits during the season, such as when your nation is defeated heavily in a war or undergoes a radical government change. Though remember change requires build-up and justification, your country cannot go from being a multicultural mixing pot to a xenophobic hate state overnight or from one small incident.

### National Abstract Tab

Now we have done some a lot of the work we can start on the most important part of the abstract, the main page where your policies are decided. Starting from the top of the page:

1. With the flag that is simple just replace the default image with yours.
2. Then put in your Claim's name and your reddit handle, this is used for the games scoreboard and so players know what you are called and who to ping.
3. Next is the Tail to Tooth Ratio (TTR), which represents soldiers in logistics vs soldiers on the front line. A higher number of troops in logistics means your maximum manpower is reduced but your units will be built faster and be more effective in combat. For context the US army in WW1 had a Tail to Tooth ratio of 2.6:1 and in WW2 4.3:1.
4. Next is your Taxes, obviously higher taxes means more money but obviously people don't approve of being taxed a lot. There are a lot of preset tax levels but feel free to do a custom level if you want to tinker.
5. Next is your Development Points (DP) , they are to the right of your taxes, TTR, claim name and flag. As well listed is the numbers of starting DP and provinces for High Province and High Development claims. DP represents your nations investment in the country, whether that be better military technology or improved infrastructure. You get 20 DP points each week (unless you Trinitite, a rare resource which gives you one extra per week per resource. All of the subjects are quite self-explanatory but here are some tips:
	1. State Bureaucracy improves the efficiency of taxes, making it higher is effectively giving yourself money.
	2. Public Welfare first requires you having welfare systems (healthcare, pensions) but reduces costs and improves happiness.
	3. Naval, Army and Air Tech/Tactics and Logistics allows for the creation of better and more specialized units, the Unit Creator tab has a table where you can check what DP requirements are needed for everything. So check what you need for investing so there isn't wasted points.
6. Next are policies, this part is incredibly straight forward. Simply pick the policies that are relevant to your nation, it is advised to pick the policies that make the most sense and then make decisions about compromising to balance the budget.

Congratulations, you now have created your abstract. Remember if you are having money or unrest issues you can change your traits, taxes, province production goods and policies to balance the budget economically and socially. However now it is time to create your starting army, generally you want to have the largest army possible as building more troops.

## Starting Armed Forces

Your starting armed forces represents your army at game start. It's size and limits on planes and ships is affected by Conscription law and military laws and how many bases you have (remember you are allowed one free of each at the start of the game). As PWP focuses heavily around war it is heavily advised that you start with a respectable army of some sort if not a capable defence force. With military Development Points you can make a nation with a highly capable army albeit with some sacrifices. You cannot create a glorious military while giving all three branches equal points.

### Unit Creator Tab

Here your military units are made, there is not much to talk about here as it is quite simple. Just remember better levels of each unit characteristic are unlocked if you improve your' DP. Use the table at the top of the tab to determine what levels of DP are needed for certain units. Remember that Landships, Dreadnoughts and Mechs require special resources to be 100% effective, although they are still potent weapons without them.

Here are some tips for making units:

1. Generally unit levels are generally 10% better then their predecessor, so 10 Quality Equipment Infantry with all else equal will be equivalent in power to 11 Cheap Equipment units (although that is a very basic analysis. However if your unit has better Quality, Training, Officers, Maintenance and Resupply you can see how quickly a nation with fewer troops can win against a lot more troops wielding worse weaponry. Though remember quantity has a quality of its own and the enemy can simply surround and overwhelm you with quicker built units.
2. FP points can be changed if you want to specialise your units even more (for example a transport plane probably doesnt need much firepower but speed means a longer range.
3. Specialisation also affects their targeting, an Anti-Tank unit will shoot at armour first and then other units second. An Anti-Submarine ship will hunt down u-boats before the enemy battleship.
4. Officer Ratio increases a units cost dramatically but improves morale, so decide whether the added monetary cost is worth the improved battlefield effectiveness.
5. Jets although cool are early jets, that eat a lot of fuel for not an extreme improvement in combat strength.
6. This is minor but remember that some mod in a war is going to be trawling through your abstract looking for unit names and making sure it is all kosher so ensure your names are correct on your sheet and your war orders and that if you have a unit that was purchased from another nation you make a note. (also please for the love of god do not name your units like Infantry Unit Mark 1a23d Hellenic Brothers Guard 34b and Infantry Unit Mark 1a23d Hellenic Brothers Guard 34d, those two are jokes but remember someone has to read that during a war so keep it distinct and simple, love GC).

### Military Manager

Here is the manager where you keep your armies, fleets and squadrons. Simply put the name of a unit from the Unit Creator Tab and the amount. A group being mobilised means it is ready for war, increasing its costs a lot so its advised to keep most of the armed forces demobilised until tensions rise. Also remember to put your military groups locations. Remember While Armies can be stationed anywhere Planes must be based in cities/forts or Air Bases while Ships can only be based in Naval Bases. **IF YOU DO NOT LIST A BASE FOR YOUR GROUPS A MOD MAY DECIDE FOR YOU AND THEIR LOGIC MAY BE VERY DIFFERENT THEN YOURS SO DO NOT FORGET.** During peace you can move units at will although obviously this is a trust and honor system where we are playing to have fun not min-max a war in a text game, once a war has started these positions are set in stone so only move groups via orders.

Here are some tips:

1. With your Army there is a maximum combat width, representing how large an individual army group your' nation can reasonably organize. You can go over this but those units will be very ineffective.
2. Combat Engineers provide a fairly good bonus to defence to make sure your defending units or mainline armies have them.
3. Infantry will walk if they do not have transport, artillery will be towed by horse if not pulled so if you want your army groups to move at a speed faster then one province per war turn bring enough transport and make sure the carrying capacity is positive or 0.
4. Enemy tanks and Landships will make quick work of simple infantry and machine guns, make sure to have an army that can counter enemy armour in some way.
5. Remember in war to always always be repairing damaged units and making new ones, industry is one of the most important aspects of winning so keep on top.