The Rules

House Rules
1. Do not flame, troll, or personally insult any other player OOC or IC. At all. You may comment on certain things negatively, but don't take it further than that. 2. Stay on topic. Make sure all comments are relevant to the fictional world of the current IOT and have nothing to do with your personal religious/political beliefs. 3. Your posts should actually consist of something relevant to your nation and not just one-liner comments. Do not spam. 4. Long diplomatic discussions belong to the realms of Social Groups or visitor and private messaging, not the Game Thread. 5. No powergaming. By definition, powergaming is making your country surpass every other country by all terms including armed forces, technology, etc. 6. The GM is supreme. He reserves the right to change game rules, ignore or modify orders, impose restrictions on players, disband player nations, and so on. 7. Above all else, RESPECT THY FELLOW FORUMERS.

I'll usually warn players first if they break the rules. If they break the rules repeatedly, then I'll apply this:

1st Strike: Player is suspended from the game for one turn. 2nd Strike: Player is suspended from the game for three turns. 3rd Strike: Player nation dissolved, and the player banned from ever rejoining.

If someone really gets on my nerve I may ban him.

Inactive players (AWOL for more than 3 turns) having their nation disbanded. These players can rejoin the game, but their old territories won't be restored to them; they'll start off with 10 claims like every new player. The nations may also be turned over into NPCs or given to new players.

Joining the game & Updates
To join a game choose a nation and a color, tell us about it, a flag is necessary, government, religion, people, policy and etc. Claim any ten provinces on the map, with the condition that they either have to be contiguous or on the coast. IOTs are turn based games. each turn is 1 in game year. I will probably update every 2 days, I want this to be a fast pace game. Stories and stats will come with each update.

Roleplaying & Expansion
Roleplaying is the essence of IOT. It’s how your nation develops. It’s how alliances are formed and broken. Roleplaying is very encouraged. Feel free to inhabit your nation with whoever or whatever you want, provided it fits with the setting and the etiquette listed above. If you are not at war, you can peacefully claim FIVE provinces each turn. If no other nation claims the same territory, they will be annexed to your empire on update. They must be next to your own territories or on the coast. Note you cannot expand in this manner in wartime. I will post an edited map, with numbered provinces, the first post I want it with the map, but later you can just say for example 3 Europe, also I want the orders to be posted in red bold.If there are competing claims, you can either discuss it among yourselves, or I will flip a coin. Each province gives you an income of 1 EP. Small territories and islands cost .5 to claim and give .5 EP, some islands are in groups.

War
Combat is decided by RNG, each army gives you one roll (1-10), they're will be bonuses. Armies are pooled. Each army costs 5 EP and it gives you one roll in the RNG. I will sometimes have "auctions", you will bid on army upgrades and who buys it gets it. Army plans also give bonuses. You may send me secret orders. Naval combat, as you will see there are no sea provinces, thats because most fleets could go around the world in one year. Each navy costs 10 EP, you may send your navy to destroy the enemies navy so you can invade or blockade him. If you blockade him he may lose 25% of his income, if its an island nation and you blockade him he may even lose 75%. You can only attack a province adjacent to yours, or a coastal province if you destroy his navy. If you are defending from a surprise attack, your forces will be distributed evenly across the front. If a war starts going badly, you may experience revolts.

Espionage
EPs can also be used in spy missions, both in peacetime and wartime. Here's how it works. Here's a list of all the spy missions you can take against your rivals, in peacetime and wartime (you can suggest more if you want). Send me a PM of what you want to do, and you'll know if it succeed or fail at update time.

There are certain risks, of course. You may fail, or worse, you may be discovered, at which point your vile acts will be known to all the world. Also, they are rather pricey. The price listed here is the [I]minimum[/I] price of a spy action. Paying [I]double[/I] the minimum price will increase the chance of success by 10% and decrease the chance of discovery by 10%. Pay three times the normal cost and the chance of success is increased by 20% and of discovery is decreased by the same percentage. And so on. This caps at 90% success rate and 10% discovery rate.

Counter-espionage Costs 4 EP 30% chance of success, 20% chance of discovery The target loses the ability to conduct spy missions for one turn. Any spy mission the target took against you the previous turn fails.

Steal Enemy Plans Costs 5 EP 20% chance of success, 10% chance of discovery. Gain two extra RNG roll chance in every battle against the target for one turn. If the target has a secret nuclear weapons program, reveal the program and any nuclear weapons they have.

Fund Rebellion Costs 6 EP 20% chance of success, 50% chance of discovery. Causes NPC rebels to appear in a province in the target country. The rebel will attempt to seize control of a province. If successful, the rebellion continues from that province. As their backers, you can choose to take control of the rebels (secretly via PM, or openly. Up to you), or you can decide to make them NPC.

Sabotage Costs 7 EP 20% chance of success, 30% chance of discovery The target loses 5 EP for one turn.

Initiate Propaganda Costs 7 LP 10% chance of success A very risky one, this. It can only be done in to a province which you could normally claim. If successful, the province joins your nation. The chance of discovery is always 100%.

Nuclear Sabotage Costs 10 LP 10% chance of success, 40% chance of discovery. Up to two nuclear missiles is destroyed (I flip a coin in the unlikely event of success). Resets Nuclear Program investment back to zero if used on a target with an unfinished nuclear program.

Nucleaer Weapons
After the great plague, the infrastructure and most nukes have been destroyed, the knowledge and some brains are still their, but you will need to develop the means of production before producing it. At first you will need to spend 25 EP to start the nuclear program. Once you have done that you will invest in it. Each 1EP invested gives you +0.5% of successful creation. After that, each nuke costs 30EP. A Nuke will destroy 3 provinces, turning them into wasteland. If 25 Nukes go off, doomsday will be called. Doomsday is not the end of the game, a secret.

Straits & The UN
Players controllingthe following provinces can block other players from accessing the respective straits: Gibraltar [I]or[/I] N. Morocco (Strait of Gibraltar), Suez or Sinai (Suez Canal), Istanbul (Bosporus), Copenhagen or Malmo (Kattegat), Sinai (Tiran), Djibouti or Aden (Bab-el-Mandeb), Bandar-Abbas or Dubai (Hormuz).Control of these straits can potentially close off the following seas: the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Aqaba. It can be very useful to block players to stop them claiming or attacking certain regions. A player blocked in the Mediterranean cannot sail out, for instance, and can't claim or attack territories outside of the Med that is not adjacent to their own territories. You may also charge EP for the usage of your strait.

Only important issues must be posted here. The chairman position will rotate. That is I will RNG the nations, and it will start from top to bottom, each nation having 3 turns as chairman's. As such you can veto on decisions. As can I. You may also propose banning of nukes, embargos (work just like the naval ones but with no fight), but you need to have a 2/3 majority. If an NPC appears from a rebelled area, you may call a vote to recognize the nation. When it is recognized, a bordering nation or the nation that started the revolt may install a puppet government. In such the nation that controls it may demand funds and/or military action.