Here I Stand by email: Turn 5 (1536-1539) - French Diplomacy

Welcome to Turn 5 of our massive game of Here I Stand by email! Turn 4 is here, and this is how things stood when it ended:

Diplomatic situation:

The Ottomans are at war with the Papacy

The Habsburgs are at war with England

The Habsburgs are at war with the Protestants

The Papacy is at war with the Protestants

The Hapsburgs are allied with Hungary-Bohemia

France is allied with Genoa

France is allied with Scotland

The Papacy is allied with Venice

Victory points:

England 13

Protestants 16

Hapsburgs 19

France 20

Ottomans 20

Papacy 20

Protestant spaces: 20

(victory points Papacy 9 - Protestants 6)

Electorates: 5 Protestant, 1 Catholic

Protestant English home spaces: 1 (0 VP)

Cards removed from the game:

Luther's 95 Theses

Peasants' War

Barbary Pirates

Defender of the Faith

Clement VII

Paul III

Marburg Colloquy

Michael Servetus

Calvin Expelled

Augsburg Confession

Julia Gonzaga

Schmalkaldic League

Explorers removed: Narváez (-1)

We start, as always, with the card draw phase. All the naval units destroyed last turn are returned to their owners and can be rebuilt, and the reformer Calvin returns to Geneva from exile. 

The Reformation continues: as a result of Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn last turn, the English Reformation is now on. The reformer Cranmer appears in London, flipping it Protestant and giving England their first Protestant Home Spaces VP, for a total of 14. Cranmer also joins the game as a debater, along with Coverdale and Latimer. The papal ranks are reinforced by Carafa and Pole, and a total of ten new cards are added to the deck, including the mandatory event Society of Jesus, Copernicus and the Spanish Inquisition.

Before dealing cards, we work out New World riches for the Habsburgs and French. The Spanish roll a seven for their colony in Cuba, which ends up as a result of 8 due to Plantations, so they get a card, and another card from their Aztec conquests; the French get a card from Charlesbourg Royal.

So the total cards everyone starts the turn with are as follows:

Ottomans: dealt 5, kept 2, total 8

Hapsburgs: 7, 2, 10

English: 4, 1, 6

French: 6, 1, 8

Papacy: 5, 1, 8

Protestants: 5, 1, 7

**

And then it's time for the diplomacy phase. The negotiation segment had to be extended when one player's laptop screen broke, but eventually, after some exchanges of diplomatic missives, I got things started by announcing an Ottoman alliance with France. The Habsburgs also announce an alliance with France, and grant them a card draw! England then announces an alliance with France, because of course they do, at the price of one French mercenary unit transferred to their control, as well as an alliance with the Protestants.

For their part, the French confirm the Ottoman and Habsburg alliances, as well as the Habsburg card draw, and announce an alliance with the Vatican! France loans the Genoan naval squadron and Andrea Doria, and transfers four units of mercenaries, all to the Papacy, and in exchange the Pope cedes Florence to the French. The alliance with England is declined. The Vatican confirm the agreement, and the Protestants confirm their alliance with England. France now leads with 22 VP!

The Habsburgs decline to sue for peace with England, and declare war on the Ottomans; the French cap off a very succesful diplomacy phase by declaring war on the English. We're running out of diplomatic counters!

The Habsburgs pay for their declaration of war with Mercenaries Demand Pay, and France with A Mighty Fortress. The French then play Venetian Informant for the third time in the game, this time looking at the English hand.

I spring deploy Suleiman and three Ottoman regulars to Buda, and the Habsburgs decline to deploy. Henry VIII travels to Calais with three mercenaries and two regulars, and the French deploy Francis, Montmorency, four regulars and four mercenaries to Boulogne. The Papacy finishes spring deployment by sending four mercenaries to Ancona.

**

The Ottomans start the action phase with John Zápolya, meaning I now have an army of eleven regulars at Buda. The Habsburgs retaliate by recruiting two regulars at Vienna with City State Rebels, and England plays Janissaries Rebel for command points to deploy their fleet: two squadrons from Bristol to the Irish Sea, two squadrons from Calais to the Channel and a squadron from London to the North Sea. Following this, Brandon and his army march from Antwerp to Calais.

France plays their home card and rolls on the château table with maximum bonuses, but rolls a 2, so they draw one card and go up to 23 VP. The Papacy plays Pirate Haven for 3 CP, deploying their fleets from Venice and Rome and burning books in German. Utilizing Tetzel's bonus to add 1 CP to the St. Peter's track, the Vatican returns Strasbourg to Catholicism but strikes out in Münster. The Protestants play Unsanitary Camp as an event in Vienna, causing the Habsburgs to lose four regulars.

As the Ottomans, I play Dissolution of the Monasteries for command points. My fleet in Coron moves to the Aegean and Barbarossa's navy in Corfu deploys into the Ionian Sea. The papal fleet in the Adriatic Sea successfully intercepts; in the ensuing combat, I roll 11 dice and score 3 hits, sinking one Venetian squadron, and the Papal fleet gets five hits with six dice, destroying both my squadrons and a corsair. Barbarossa withdraws into the Aegean, and I use the remaining command points to build my last fleet at Coron and take control of Szegedin.

The Habsburgs play Calvin's Institutes for command points, building a regular in Prague and Innsbrück, as well as a mercenary in Vienna. England play their home card, Six Wives of Henry VIII, and the roll on the marriage chart is a 5: Edward is born sickly, and England gets 5 VP, catapulting them to a total of 19. Further, since Edward's mother was Anne of Cleves, both the English and the Protestants draw a card.

The French play Affair of the Placards for command points, moving their fleet in Marseille to sea and marching the two regulars in Genoa to Florence. The Vatican plays Book of Common Prayer, moving their fleet in Ancona to the Adriatic and building St. Peter's. The Protestants play Zwingli Dons Armour for command points: Philip of Hesse besieges the electorate of Trier, the Protestant regular in Brandenburg marches to Wittenberg, and Tyndale finishes translating the New Testament into English, generating six reformation attempts in the English language zone. Staggeringly, every single one of them succeeds, equalizing the Protestants and the Papacy at 17 VP each and taking England to 22!

On my impulse, I play Erasmus for command points, and engage the Venetian fleet in the Ionian Sea again. This time, after failed papal interception and avoid battle attempts, we're victorious, but only sink one of the two enemy fleets; the survivors retreat to the Adriatic. Barbarossa pursues them, and we finally destroy the rest of the Venetian navy for the loss of another corsair. A third naval move regroups my fleet in the Ionian.

The Habsburgs play Pilgrimage of Grace for command points, continuing an impressive streak of religious events not played as events, to recruit a mercenary in Innsbruck and send an explorer to the New World. England plays the mandatory event Imperial Coronation, which has no effect as Charles V is in Vienna, and marches their army from Calais to Boulogne. The French choose to avoid battle and retreat to Boulogne, but they fail. In the field battle, both armies manage to score a grand total of three hits, which means both sides lose three mercenaries, the French defenders win, and the English retreat back to Calais. They use their other command point to recruit a mercenary there.

For their part, the French play War in Persia for CP, withdrawing their army from Boulogne to Paris, sending Montmorency and two mercenaries to Rouen, and recruiting a Scottish regular in Glasgow. The pope plays Unpaid Mercenaries and uses the command points to build St. Peter's, which gets them their fourth St. Peter's victory point for a total of 18 VP. The Protestants retaliate with Mercenaries Bribed, starting a debate in German against the only committed Papal debater, Tetzel. The Protestant debater is Melanchton, and he absolutely destroys his opponent: the Protestants win by four hits to none, meaning Tetzel is disgraced and four German-speaking locations convert to Protestantism. The Protestants flip Regensburg, Salzburg, Innsbrück and Linz, and all this swings the victory points their way: the Papacy now has 16 VP and the Protestants 20.

The Ottomans play Gout for command points, attempting piracy in the Ionian Sea. We score one hit, and the Habsburgs award us a piracy VP, for a total of 21 VP. On the Habsburg impulse, it turns out that none of us were expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

There are no Protestant Spanish-language spaces (are there ever?), but the Habsburgs make the English discard Fountain of Youth and draw a card for themselves. The debate ends up being Carafa against Luther himself, and the Catholics win it by one hit, converting Worms. This again changes the victory points, putting the Papacy at 17 and the Protestants at 19. Incensed at losing a card, the English play Shipbuilding for command points, recruiting a mercenary at Calais and then marching their entire army in Calais to Brussels; the Habsburg garrison withdraws into the fortifications.

At this point France plays Swiss Mercenaries as a response, placing one in Florence and three in Carlisle, followed by Scots Raid.

France builds a Scottish regular in Glasgow, and marches the stack of five units there to Carlisle. The English decline to intercept, so the Scots march on to York and launch their assault. Neither side scores any hits, so now the siege is on. They then use the command points from the event to send an explorer to the New World.

The Papacy plays Leipzig Debate, nominating Eck as their attacker and targeting an uncommitted German debater. It ends up being Eck versus Karlstadt again, and the hits are 3-0 to the Papal side. That means Karlstadt is burned at the stake! The Papacy flips Nürnberg, Regensburg and Leipzig; they gain 1 VP from this and 1 VP from Karlstadt, going up to 19 VP, while the Protestants drop to 18.

For their part, the Protestants play Master of Italy. Since France controls Milan, Florence and Genoa, they go up to 24 VP! The Protestants use the command points to storm Trier, unsuccesfully, and move a regular from Augsburg to Worms. I play Revolt in Egypt for command points, move Barbarossa's fleet to the Adriatic and piratize the Papacy there. We score one hit, netting one piracy VP for a total of 22.

Meanwhile, the Habsburgs go on the offensive! They play Gabelle Revolt for one CP and march Charles, the Duke of Alva and their entire stack in Vienna to Pressburg. Suleiman attempts an intercept with the Ottoman stack in Buda and succeeds. The battle of Pressburg is a tremendous slaughter, with the Ottomans losing five regulars and the Habsburgs seven units. The Habsburg survivors retreat to Vienna.

The English play Machiavelli: the Prince for command points, and storm Brussels: both sides lose one mercenary and the siege continues. They also send one of their regulars from Edinburgh to besiege Stirling, and the French mercenary at Glasgow fails to intercept them. This cuts the French line of communication to York. The other English regular at Edinburgh then attacks the French mercenaries at Glasgow, but neither side scores any hits and the English retreat back to Edinburgh. France then plays Treachery! and conquers York! The French now have 26 victory points, which means the game will end this turn unless someone drops them back below 25.

The Pope plays Rough Wooing for command points, sending Andrea Doria and the Genoan fleet into the Barbary Coast and building St. Peter's for two CP. The Protestants play Trace Italienne to initiate a debate in the German language zone. The matchup ends up being Büllinger versus Eck, so the Protestants swap in Luther and draw a card with Here I Stand. The first round ends in a tie, and in the second round, Campeggio beats Oekolampedius by two hits, flipping Kassel and Lübeck.

For my part, I play my home card to place four regulars in Istanbul. With France past the victory threshold, there's not a lot I can do except hope that there's a next turn and I can have a shot at winning this. On that note, the Habsburgs play Andrea Doria as an event: both they and the Papacy draw a card, but luckily I lose none of my piracy VPs.

With only one card left, there's nothing England can do to evict the French from York, and they skip their impulse. France plays Colonial Governor / Native Uprising for command points, recruiting a mercenary in St. Dizier and returning their ships in the Gulf of Lion to Marseille. The Pope plays Knights of St. John for command points to finish building St. Peter's, taking them to 20 VP. The Protestants play Katherine Bora to start translating the New Testament into French.

As the Ottomans, the French victory seems inevitable at this point, so I pass. The Habsburgs play Philip of Hesse's Bigamy as an event, forcing the Protestants to either discard a random card or remove the bigamist from play. They discard Surprise Attack. England skips their impulse, and so does France. The Papacy plays Papal Bull, excommunicating Zwingli and choosing to debate an uncommitted Protestant in German. Aleander faces Oecolampadius, and wins by one hit to none. With Aleander's special ability, that means Salzburg and Kassel flip Catholic. The Protestants and Ottomans skip their impulses, and the Habsburgs play their home card for command points. They recruit four mercenaries in Vienna, and Charles again leads his forces to Pressburg. In the ensuing battle, all four mercenaries are lost for three Ottoman casualties, and the Habsburgs withdraw back to Vienna. England and France skip their impulses, and the Papacy plays Mercenaries Grow Restless to recruit a regular in Rome. Then everyone skips, ending the action phase.

Because it was obvious the game would end this turn, we skipped the winter phase and went straight on to the New World. The Habsburg and French explorers ended up being Roberval and Magellan, and while Roberval returned empty-handed, Magellan completed a succesful circumnavigation! This earned the Habsburgs 1 VP for the Pacific Straits and 3 for the circumnavigation, catapulting them into second place. It's not enough to change the outcome, though, and the game ends in a French victory.

Here's the final score:

Protestants 17

England 20

Papacy 21

Ottomans 22

Hapsburgs 23

France 26

**

We got Turn 5 started on May 14th 2021, and the diplomacy phase ended on June 22nd. The action phase kicked off on July 20th, and ran for the rest of the year and then some. Prince Edward was born on August 30th, and Tyndale published his New Testament on September 22nd. Karlstadt was burned on December 20th, and York fell on the first of February 2022. By the time Zwingli was excommunicated, the turn had taken a full year. The action phase and the game ended on Monday, the 11th of July: two years, three months and some days since Luther's 95 Theses hit the table on March 22nd 2020.

**

Well, that was certainly an epic experience in the proper sense of the word. As one of our players put it to me, the delay between sending out your "orders" and finding out what happened made for a real feeling of grand strategy. I'm delighted we performed this experiment, and want to thank everyone who participated.

I have to say I still have mixed feelings about this last turn. I'm not taking anything away from the French player: they saw a shot at a win, and combined some very skilful diplomacy with getting everything out of the cards they were dealt to take it. So I consider this an absolutely deserved win. It did involve running some considerable risks, though. There were several cards that could have derailed the French win completely: any of the cards affecting mercenaries would have been difficult for the thinly stretched French to deal with, and something like Diplomatic Marriage, City State Rebels or Andrea Doria could have knocked out a key, leaving them short of the 25 VP needed for the win.

The thing is, nearly all of those cards were in play this turn, and none of them were used against the French, even when it became clear that they were winning. We've played Munchkin, where as soon as someone starts pulling ahead, everybody piles on them; this was somehow exactly the opposite experience. With my cards and board position, there was very little I could do except hope there would be a sixth turn, where I think all of us would have had a shot at the win. Several players could have done something to stop the French. The Habsburgs could have dropped France below 25 VP and put themselves in a position to win with a successful circumnavigation - which, we know with hindsight, they would have got. The play of Andrea Doria against my Ottomans, as opposed to deactivating Genoa, amounted to throwing the game to the French. I still don't quite know how I feel about that.

Having said that, I'm reasonably happy with my strategy. My experience in our first game was that if the Ottomans come out swinging, everyone else will mobilize against them, and I wanted to avoid that. What's perhaps slightly boring about the Ottomans, purely in an abstract strategy game sense, is that you've got very few options other than fighting the Habsburgs. I tried fighting the Papacy, and I don't mind telling you I was unpleasantly surprised by Venetian Alliance! I was unlucky on some key naval combat rolls, otherwise I think I might have done better in the Mediterranean. I was also quite lucky on my piracy rolls, and managed to grab Julia Gonzaga as well. I feel that if there had been one more turn, I'd have had a pretty good shot at winning, but it wasn't to be.

**

So, now that that's done, I've put in a P500 order for Virgin Queen. Again, I want to thank everyone who took part; we'll be back.

Here I Stand by email: Turn 4 (1532-1535) - Perfidious Albion

Welcome to Turn 4 of our megalomaniac game of Here I Stand by email! After two dramatic opening turns, Turn 3 was a bit of a breather; reculer pour mieux sauter. The Habsburg leap to 18 VP in the New World phase got everyone's attention, especially with Schmalkalden just around the corner!

At the end of Turn 4, we begin checking for a Domination Victory (23.3): if any player has 5 VP more than anyone else, they win! The normal victory conditions all still apply: 25 VP, controlling enough keys or converting 50 spaces to Protestantism. As things stand, there's an outside chance of the Habsburgs winning outright at the end of this turn, if Schmalkalden and the New World go their way. I can't help thinking it would be a bit anticlimactic for the game to end in the New World phase.

Here's the situation at the end of Turn 3.

Diplomatic situation:

France is allied with Scotland

The Hapsburgs are allied with Hungary-Bohemia

Victory points:

Protestants 6

England 11

France 15

Papacy 17

Hapsburgs 18

Ottomans 18

Protestant spaces: 22

(victory points Papacy 9 - Protestants 6)

Protestant English home spaces: 1 (0 VP)

Cards removed from the game:

Luther's 95 Theses
Peasants' War
Barbary Pirates
Defender of the Faith
Clement VII

Paul III

Marburg Colloquy

Explorers removed: Narváez (-1)

**

This turn, a third reformer enters play: none other than Jean Calvin of Geneva, taking the number of Protestant spaces to 23. The Protestants also receive the services of all four French-language debaters: Calvin, Guillaume Farel, Nicolas Cop and Pierre Olivétan. There's also eleven new cards to add to the deck, but since the English Reformation isn't underway yet, that's all the new stuff for this turn.

In the New World Riches phase, we figure out what happens to New World conquests and colonies. The French result for their colony is Galleon, which means no card, but the colony survives. The Habsburgs get a result of Depleted 1 for the Incas, and NE for their Aztec conquests; so the Habsburgs get one bonus card, but the Inca conquest is moved to the VP box on their player card, and will provide no more extra cards.

So this is how many cards everyone starts the turn with:

Ottomans: dealt 5, kept 2, total 8

Hapsburgs: 6, 2, 9

English: 4, 1, 6

French: 4, 1, 6

Papacy: 4, 1, 7

Protestants: 4, 1, 6

**

With the cards dealt, we head into the Diplomacy Phase. Speaking of the English, the Henry's Marital Status marker is currently on the Ask for Divorce space. This means that Henry VIII can try to persuade the Pope to grant them a divorce in this Diplomacy phase (9.1, p. 11). If they're succesful, Henry's Marital Status advances to Ann Boleyn, allowing the English player their first roll on the Pregnancy Chart.

The Ottomans got the announcements started with an alliance to France; the Habsburgs announce no deals. England announces a divorce for Henry VIII, at the cost of a card draw to the Papacy, and an alliance with France. France confirms these alliances, and the Holy See confirms the divorce and card draw. This means the English Reformation starts next turn, the Habsburgs get a 2 CP discount on their next declaration of war against the English, and we get to roll on the Henry's Wives Pregnancy Chart. Alas for Henry, the result is a 1, meaning his marriage with Anne Boleyn is never consummated.

Since there are no wars, prisoners or excommunications, we can skip straight to the war declaration phase, where the Ottomans declare war on Venice. At this point, I noticed we had made a mistake in setup: there were only two naval squadrons in Venice, when there should be three. So I added the third squadron. The Papacy responds by playing Venetian Alliance, activating Venice and placing one Venetian regular and one Venetian squadron in Ancona: the Ottomans and the Papacy are now at war, and the Ottomans get a -1 VP penalty for Phony War against Venice. This puts me at 17 VP and the Papacy in the lead with 19!

There are no other declarations of war, so I pay for mine with The Wartburg. France then plays Venetian Informant to look at the Hapsburgs' hand, and I deploy Suleiman and five regulars to Coron. Charles V deploys to Salzburg with five regulars of his own, and England sends Brandon to Calais with five mercenaries. France, in turn, dispatches Montmorency and five regulars to Grenoble, and the Papacy declines to deploy.

**

I start the action phase by playing Auld Alliance for command points. First, a naval move takes Barbarossa and the Algiers corsairs to the Barbary Coast, the fleets in Coron to the Ionian Sea and the two corsairs in Scutari to the Adriatic. The Venetian fleets at Venice and Ancona attempt interceptions, but fail. A second naval move takes the corsairs in the Adriatic into the Ionian, and Barbarossa's fleet into the Tyrrhenian. The Papal fleet at Rome succesfully intercepts into the Tyrrhenian Sea, and is destroyed for the loss of one corsair. Finally, a cavalry unit is recruited in Scutari.

The Habsburgs play Michael Servetus, taking them to 19 VP and forcing the Protestants to discard Ransom.

England advances on the marital front, playing Six Wives of Henry VIII for a roll on the pregnancy chart. Sadly, the result is another 1, making Anne Boleyn's bonus irrelevant since the end result becomes 2 anyway: the King remarries, but no child is born. The French play Andrea Doria, activating Genoa as their ally and moving to 17 VP; the Papacy plays Calvin Expelled, removing the reformer of Geneva from play for the rest of the turn. The Protestants retaliate with Augsburg Confession.

The Ottomans play Julia Gonzaga as an event: any piracy hits in the Tyrrhenian Sea this turn will net us 1 bonus VP. On the Habsburg impulse, Cloth Prices Fluctuate, this time to their advantage, netting the Habsburgs and the English a card draw. The English play Macchiavelli: The Prince and declare war on the Habsburgs!

An English army of one regular and two mercenaries marches on Brussels from Calais, and the Habsburg garrison withdraws into the fortifications with a very strongly worded letter of protest. Brandon then leads four mercenaries and a regular from Calais to Antwerp, where the defenders similarly withdraw.

The French play their home card and roll on the château table, netting a victory point and a card. The Papacy plays Leipzig Debate, sending Eck to challenge the uncommitted Protestants in Germany. Eck draws Luther as his opponent and fails miserably, scoring only one hit to Luther's three. The Protestants flip Münster and Strasbourg, moving up to 7 VP and dropping the Papacy to 18. They then play Arquebusiers and commit Tyndale to translate more of the New Testament into English.

For my part, I play Diplomatic Overture for command points. We start by engaging in piracy against the Habsburgs in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Habsburg fleet in Naples rolls against our corsairs but fails to score a hit. Barbarossa and his corsairs succeed spectacularly, scoring three hits and claiming the Julia Gonzaga VP for us as well, putting us in the shared lead with the Habsburgs with 19 VP, destroying the Naples fleet and getting us a card from the Habsburg hand! With the rest of the command points, we transport Suleiman and five regulars from Coron to Corfu, and Barbarossa and his corsairs sail to the Barbary Coast. The Venetian regular at Corfu retreats into the fortifications.

The Habsburgs play Holy Roman Emperor for command points, clearing the unrest in Innsbrück, sending an explorer to the New World and founding a colony in Cuba. The English play Printing Press, and use the first command point for an assault on Antwerp, which falls with no English casualties: the English are at 13 VP while the Habsburgs drop to 18. They then move all their fleets out to sea, recruit a mercenary in Calais and send out an explorer. France uses Professional Rowers to take control of Modena and recruit a mercenary in St. Dizier, and the Papacy invests the command points from Mercenaries Bribed into building St. Peter's, going back up to 19 VP.

The Protestants play A Mighty Fortress, but with Luther committed, they're forced to play it for command points, and they call a debate in German. Bucer and Contarini face off, but the Protestants play Here I Stand to substitute Luther and draw a card. Luther and Contarini both score two hits, sending the debate to a second round. Luther tags in Bullinger and Campeggio represents the Papacy; the Protestants win by one hit, but Campeggio's special ability nullifies the debate result. The remaining command point is used to translate more of the New Testament into English.

I play Shipbuilding for two command points, starting with an assault on Corfu: we take the fortress, but lose two regulars as casualties. That gets rid of my phony war penalty, putting the Ottomans in the lead with 20 VP. With the other command point, I move Barbarossa and his corsairs to the Ionian Sea.

In further naval affairs, the Habsburgs play Akinji Raiders as command points, building a fleet in Corunna and moving their ships from Seville into the Atlantic Ocean, Barcelona into the Gulf of Lion and the newly built ships into the Bay of Biscay. The English decline to intercept, and play Michelangelo to recruit a regular in Calais and two mercenaries in London. France launches a voyage of exploration with Gout, and the Pope uses Gabelle Revolt to build St. Peter's. The Protestants skip, and I play Potosi Silver Mines to build a fleet in Coron and a cavalry unit in Istanbul. The Habsburgs use Pirate Haven to build a regular in Taranto, and Charles marches his army to Linz. England plays Imperial Coronation, but as Charles isn't in Italy, the only result is the construction of an English fleet in Bristol. The French play Unpaid Mercenaries and remove the four Habsburg mercenaries in Navarre from play.

The Pope deploys a Papal Bull as command points, burning books in Germany with the lot and using Cajetan's debater bonus for an additional attempt. The Catholics strike out in the inevitable Leipzig, Regensburg and Strasbourg, losing the last two because of the Augsburg Confession penalty. However, they succeed in Salzburg and the electorate of Trier, dropping the Protestants to 6 VP and raising the Papacy to a joint lead of 20 with the Ottomans! The Protestants counterattack by playing Anabaptists to start a debate in German. Carlstadt faces off against Tetzel, and both score one hit for another tie. The last uncommitted papal debater is Aleander, who squares off against Oekolampedius and wins by two hits. With Aleander's special ability, that means the papacy gets to flip three spaces, and selects Regensburg, Hamburg and Bremen. I conclude my action phase by playing Janissaries and deploying four regulars to Istanbul.

The Habsburgs play Galleons as an event, placing the Galleon marker next to their (future) colonies on the board, and England and France skip. The Papacy presses their advantage, and plays Mercenaries Demand Pay to burn books in Germany, but they strike out in both Münster and Brunswick. The Protestants and Ottomans skip, and the Habsburgs play Plantations to further enhance their future colony. After this, everyone else skips, and the action phase is done!

**

Next up is the winter phase, where our troops return to their fortifications and our fleets into harbor. When playing by email, we've done this in impulse order, so I start by returning Suleiman and two regulars from Corfu to Istanbul, and recalling Ibrahim from Buda. Barbarossa and his fleets winter in Corfu. The Habsburg fleet in the Bay of Biscay returns to Corunna, while the Atlantic fleet sails to Gibraltar and the ships in the Gulf of Lion head for Palma; Charles marches back to Vienna, and the regulars in Taranto return to Naples. The English fleets in the Channel return to Calais, and the others to London and Bristol; the troops campaigning in the Habsburg Netherlands regroup in London, Antwerp and Calais. The French move one mercenary unit to Metz, making a stack of four, and everyone else in the field winters in Paris, as well as one mercenary from Rouen. Finally, the Venetian regular in Ancona returns to Rome.

The mandatory events for this turn are Schmalkaldic League and Paul III; Alessandro Farnese already ascended to the Papacy in Turn 3, but we've seen no sign of Schmalkalden whatsoever in the entire game. Well, now that it's the Winter Phase of Turn 4, it's time.

The Protestants now gain control of those home spaces they've managed to convert, get their military leaders, and are now a faction just like all the others, at permanent war with the Pope and the Habsburgs.

From now on, the Protestants get 2 VP for each electorate that's under their political and religious control, whereas the Habsburgs gain 1 VP for each that they control. So Trier stays Catholic and therefore under Habsburg rule, bumping them up to 19 VP, and the remaining five electorates add up to a Protestant total of 16 VP.

Finally, it's time for the New World phase. We place the Habsburg colony of Cuba in the appropriate spot, and start working out the voyages of exploration for each power. The Habsburg explorer is de Vaca (exploration rating 0), the English have sent Chancellor (1), and the French explorer is Cartier (3). Cartier's voyage is resolved first, and the modified roll is a 10: he can choose to attempt the circumnavigation, but opts to discover the Amazon river instead, taking the French to a shared lead of 20 VP. Both Chancellor and de Vaca return empty-handed.

Since no-one has enough victory points to end the game, it's on to Turn 5!

**

We got this turn started on December 27th 2020, and the diplomacy phase wrapped up on January 31st. The action phase started on Valentine's Day 2021, and lasted until May 11th, so it took just about three months. We resolved the New World phase on May 14th, so the whole turn clocked in at something like five and a half months.

**

Here, then, is where we stand at the end of Turn 4.

Diplomatic situation:

The Ottomans are at war with the Papacy

The Habsburgs are at war with England

The Habsburgs are at war with the Protestants

The Papacy is at war with the Protestants

The Hapsburgs are allied with Hungary-Bohemia

France is allied with Genoa

France is allied with Scotland

The Papacy is allied with Venice

Victory points:

England 13

Protestants 16

Hapsburgs 19

France 20

Ottomans 20

Papacy 20

Protestant spaces: 20

(victory points papacy 9 - protestants 6)

Electorates: 5 Protestant, 1 Catholic

Protestant English home spaces: 1 (0 VP)

Cards removed from the game:

Luther's 95 Theses

Peasants' War

Barbary Pirates

Defender of the Faith

Clement VII

Paul III

Marburg Colloquy

Michael Servetus

Calvin Expelled

Augsburg Confession

Julia Gonzaga

Schmalkaldic League

Explorers removed: Narváez (-1)

Here I Stand by email: Turn 3 (1528-1531) - The Congress of Ravenna

It's been quite a while since the previous post in this series, but here's what happened on the third turn of our game of Here I Stand by email!

**

Cards removed from the game:

Luther's 95 Theses
Peasants' War
Barbary Pirates
Defender of the Faith
Clemens VII

Explorers removed: Narváez (-1)

Diplomatic situation:

The Hapsburgs are at war with England, France and the Ottomans
France is allied with Scotland
The Hapsburgs are allied with Hungary-Bohemia

Victory points at the end of Turn 2:

Protestants 6
France 8
England 11
Hapsburgs 14
Papacy 16
Ottomans 19

Protestant spaces: 20 (VPs 6 - 9)
Electorates: Catholic 1 (Cologne), Protestant 5

**

The turn starts with the card draw phase. This time, we have no reformers to add to the map and only one debater, the Protestant Heinrich Bullinger, but for the first time in this game, we're adding new cards to the deck. If you've read my reports on the previous turns, you'll have noticed that some cards leave the deck when they're played as events. Other cards are added to the deck, either on preordained turns or depending on how Henry VIII is doing on the marriage front. On this turn, we're adding the ten new cards that enter play on Turn 3. Then we shuffle the discards into the deck, and we're ready to go.

Rolling for New World riches tells us that the Hapsburgs are getting an extra card from their Inca conquests again. So here's how many cards everyone is starting their turn with:

Ottomans: dealt 5, kept 1, hand total 7
Hapsburgs: 7,1,9
England: 4,0,5
France: 3,1,5
Papacy: 3,0,5
Protestants: 4,1,6

**

As we moved on to the diplomacy phase, the Hapsburg player unfortunately had to drop out of the game, but luckily we found someone to replace them. The King of Spain is dead, long live the King of Spain! This obviously created some delay while we got the new player read in, compounded by the fact that we wanted him to get the opportunity to see the game board and everything for himself; that was delayed by both of us having to get tested for the coronavirus in consecutive weeks, meaning we had to quarantine until we got the results. We both tested negative, but this took several weeks.

Eventually we got the diplomacy phase restarted with our new Hapsburg player on board. The Pope took the initiative, proposing a peace conference in Ravenna to resolve the massive Hapsburg war. The previous Hapsburg player had, in fact, refused to attend, but after his abdication and replacement, Charles V the Later chose differently. After some deliberation, the Congress of Ravenna produced the following agreement, henceforth known as the Concordat of Ravenna:

- the Ottomans make peace with the Hapsburgs
- the Ottomans return Vienna to the Hapsburgs
- the Hapsburgs make peace with the Ottomans and the English
- the Hapsburgs return Paris, St. Dizier, Dijon and Avignon to the French
- England makes peace with the Hapsburgs
- England returns Corunna to the Hapsburgs

The Concordat is put forward as a group of agreements that need to be ratified together, as per section 9.1 of the rules: it will only come into force if all parties announce all the deals. After the negotiation phase, it was duly announced and came into force; France and the Ottomans also announced an alliance, and the Protestants gave France one random card draw. The Hapsburg army in Paris displaced to Vienna, my troops in Vienna went to Buda, and the English fleet in Corunna sailed to Plymouth. France then sued for peace with the Hapsburgs, giving them two war winner VPs, returning Brussels and restoring Lyon to the French.

The diplomacy phase ended with no further action; this is the current victory point situation.

Protestants 6
England 11
France 12
Hapsburgs 15
Papacy 16
Ottomans 17

**

The Ottomans and Hapsburgs decline to spring deploy; England sends Brandon and some troops to Edinburgh, while France deploys a mercenary to Lyon, and the Papacy sends one to Siena. And with that, it's time for the Action Phase!

I start with Spring Preparations, played for command points. The Ottomans build two corsair fleets at Scutari, and then use the last command point as a naval move: the Scutari corsairs move to the Adriatic, one fleet from Coron to the Ionian and one to the Aegean, and the Algiers corsairs to the Barbary Coast.

On the Hapsburg impulse, we received white smoke: Pope Clement VII was dead, long live Pope Paul III.

The Hapsburgs use the two command points to clear out unrest in Graz and Linz. England plays Ransom for command points, sending an explorer to the New World and recruiting a mercenary in London. The French play Printing Press, also sending an explorer and marching King Francis I from Rouen via Paris to besiege Metz. The Papacy gets things started with Leipzig Debate, choosing to exclude Luther. Aleander faces Zwingli and defeats him squarely, returning Worms, Strasbourg and, inevitably, Leipzig, to the Catholic faith. Luther retaliates by using Here I Stand to fetch and play Printing Press from the discards; the Protestants go three for three on the Reformation attempts, converting Cologne, Worms and, yes, Leipzig to Protestantism. By my count, Leipzig has now switched religious allegiance five times.

For my part, I'm playing Knights of St. John for command points, which I am using to transport Suleiman and four regulars to Rhodes. Here's a funny thing: I can't find rules for what the Knights of St. John do if you enter their space anywhere in the rulebook. I assume they behave like independent troops defending an independent key, but Rhodes isn't a key, it's a fortress. Everyone seems to play it that way and it makes sense, but unless I've missed something, the rules are actually completely silent on this. So I assume that when my troops enter Rhodes, the Knights retreat into their fortress and I am now besieging it.

The Hapsburgs then deploy Erasmus for some counter-reformation efforts.

The Papacy succesfully returned Worms, Basel and, of course, Leipzig to Catholicism, only striking out in Nürnberg; Protestant spaces now stand at 17. England uses John Zapolya to build a fleet at Bristol and recruit a mercenary in London. Then, for the first time in the game, the French get to play their home card, Patron of the Arts, as an event!

The dice roll is a 3: looking at the Châteaux Table on the French home card and adding +2 because the French control Milan, we find that this results in the French gaining their first Château VP and drawing a card. The Papacy then plays Janissaries Rebel for command points, which they use to build St. Peter's. The Protestants call the Marburg Colloquy, committing Luther and Oekolampadius for a total of six reformation attempts. They strike out at Bremen, but convert Leipzig (flipping it for the 7th time), Worms, Münster, Regensburg, and as a bit of a surprise, Norwich! The reformation has officially reached England.

On my impulse, I play Zwingli Dons Armor for three command points. I undertake some piracy against the Papacy in the Adriatic and manage to score a hit, netting my second piracy VP of the game, but our assault on Rhodes fails and I lose a regular. Here's what the map looks like after the Ottoman impulse:

The Hapsburgs play Shipbuilding, placing naval squadrons in Barcelona and Naples; the English play their home card, Six Wives of Henry VIII, to advance Henry's Marital Status to the Ask for Divorce stage. France uses Field Artillery for command points to storm Metz, reinforcing their assault force and placing one new mercenary in Milan with Swiss Mercenaries. The independent garrison in Metz is destroyed, and the French occupy the city, bringing them to a total of 15 victory points.

The Papacy plays Charles Bourbon for command points, investing 2 CP in St. Peter's and gaining their second St. Peter's VP, and spending 2 CP on burning books in the German language zone. Cajetan's debater bonus gives them three counter-reformation attempts, which fail in Brunswick but convert Münster and Leipzig. The Protestants retaliate with War in Persia, clearing unrest from Regensburg to make way for a theological treatise from Carlstadt, who reconverts Leipzig but strikes out in Linz and Münster, creating unrest in Linz. The last command point is invested in getting the English translation of the New Testament started.

For my part, I play Arquebusiers to mount a second assault on Rhodes: this time around, the Knights of St. John fall and we take no casualties. The Hapsburgs play Pirate Haven for command points, recruiting a regular in Amsterdam and clearing unrest in Linz again. The English recruit two mercenaries in London with Professional Rowers, and the French use Landsknechts to deploy a mercenary in Rouen and Milan. The Vatican issues a Papal Bull to build St. Peter's and start a debate in German. Tetzel faces Zwingli and debates him to a draw, leading to a second round between Contarini and Bucer, which the Catholics win by one hit, flipping Leipzig. In return, the Protestants use Surprise Attack to publish a treatise, reconverting Leipzig and converting Bremen. I play my home card and deploy three regulars to Nezh, and one to Istanbul.

Note the army markers! The Hapsburgs use Colonial Governor/Native Uprising to send an explorer to the New World; England skips their impulse, and the French ship Thomas More off to Canada to found a colony at Charlesbourg Royal. Everyone else skips, and it's a Hapsburg solo game from here on: they play Holy Roman Emperor to move Charles to Vienna, clear the unrest in Münster and launch a conquest in the New World, and Fountain of Youth to deploy a Hungarian regular in Prague. With that, the action phase ends!

**

And then it's on to the winter phase. I'm returning my fleets to Coron and my corsairs to Algiers and Scutari; the troops in Nezh are going to Belgrade, and Suleiman is returning to Istanbul with his army. The Hapsburg regulars at Amsterdam winter in Antwerp, and Brandon returns to London with a mercenary unit. The King of France returns to Paris with three mercenaries and a regular, and recalls Montmorency from Bordeaux and a regular and two mercenaries from Marseille; the Papal mercenaries in Siena return to Rome. The only mandatory event that would happen this turn is Barbary Pirates, but I was lucky enough to be dealt it on the first turn.

Finally, we resolve the New World phase. The French Charlesbourg Royal colony marker is placed in the appropriate spot, and then we have three voyages of exploration and a Hapsburg conquest to figure out. They end up being John Rut for the English, Jean-François Roberval for the French and Juan Ponce de León for the Habsburgs. The first two return home empty-handed, while de Léon discovers the Great Lakes, earning the Habsburgs a victory point. Pizarro then conquers the Aztecs for another 2 VP, which takes the Habsburgs to 18 and a shared lead with the Ottomans!

**

This turn took a little bit longer than the previous ones: cards were dealt on the 18th of June, and then midsummer and an unexpected heatwave happened; and then there was the player change and pandemic-related testing delays. By chance, our new Habsburg player visited our apartment exactly two months after cards for the turn were dealt. Play resumed on the 23rd of August with the diplomacy phase, which wrapped up on September 3rd; the action phase started on September 13th and ran until December 15th. We wrapped up the New World phase and the turn on December 27th. So this turn took half a year! We may be here for a while.

**

Here's how things stood at the end of Turn 3.

Diplomatic situation:

France is allied with Scotland

The Hapsburgs are allied with Hungary-Bohemia

Victory points:

Protestants 6

England 11

France 15

Papacy 17

Hapsburgs 18

Ottomans 18

Protestant spaces: 22

(victory points papacy 9 - protestants 6)

Protestant English home spaces: 1 (0 VP)

Cards removed from the game:

Luther's 95 Theses

Peasants' War

Barbary Pirates

Defender of the Faith

Clement VII

Paul III

Marburg Colloquy

Explorers removed: Narváez (-1)

Here I Stand: Army boxes

 Believe it or not, our game of Here I Stand by email is still going on! As I write this, we're in the second round of impulses in Turn 3's action phase. We're really enjoying the game, but one of the problems I mentioned in my introductory post has come up again: the board is starting to get very cluttered in places.

Here, for example, is Calais: we need to fit an English square control marker, fleet and three army tokens onto that space on the map, and it's a little bit challenging. 

I mean yes, we can stack all three armies on top of each other, at which point no-one can see what's in the stack. This is highly inconvenient when playing by email, where everyone except the Sublime Porte is relying on pictures of the board. Even stacks become a challenge when, for instance, an army made up of regulars and mercenaries is besieging a key.

We've decided to implement a solution. Now, the Here I Stand board already has these nifty holding boxes for many of the capital cities on the board, as shown below.

War of the Ring did something similar: it basically had a box like this for every stronghold on the map, but also something ingenious: army boxes.

The square boxes are for strongholds: when one is placed under siege, very much like a key or fortress in Here I Stand, you put the garrison models in the stronghold box. The rectangular white boxes are army boxes. If it becomes difficult to fit all the models in an army on the board, you put them in an army box instead, and use the associated counter. You can see a Free Peoples army counter next to the number 1 box, and a Shadow army counter by the number 3 box. It's a really good system, and we're replicating it for Here I Stand.

**

Here's the army boxes and counters my partner made:

Here are the counters on the board:

And here's the corresponding units in their boxes.

We'll see how this works, but I'm very optimistic it'll make the game board much easier to decipher.

Here I Stand by email: Turn 2 (1524-1527) - The Grand Alliance

The first turn of our pandemic social isolation Here I Stand play-by-email game is behind us. It was quite a turn, with everything from piracy and theological debates to the fall of Paris and Lyon to the Hapsburgs. Now it's time to find out what happened next.

For anyone keeping score at home, the game can end at any time if one of the non-Protestant powers achieves a military victory by placing all of their square control markers, or if the Protestants achieve a religious victory by converting 50 spaces. Any power achieving a total of 25 victory points wins the game. From turn 4 onward, we'll also start checking for a Domination victory at the end of the turn: this happens if someone is 5 or more victory points ahead of everyone else.

Cards removed from the game during Turn 1:

Luther's 95 Theses
Peasants' War
Barbary Pirates
Defender of the Faith

Explorers removed: Narváez (-1)

Diplomatic situation:

The French are at war with England, the Hapsburgs and the Papacy
France is allied with Scotland
The Ottomans are at war with Hungary-Bohemia

Victory points at the end of Turn 1:

Protestants 2
France 8
England 11
Hapsburgs 12
Ottomans 12
Papacy 18

Protestant spaces: 7

**

In the card draw phase, the reformer Huldrych Zwingli appears in Zürich, which becomes the eighth Protestant space in the game. The Protestants also get their first English-language debater in William Tyndale, and a bunch more Germans. No new cards are added to the deck on this turn, so the discard pile is shuffled back into the deck and we deal everyone a new set of cards.

After everything that happened last turn, this is how many cards everyone's getting. At this point, we rolled to see what happens to the Hapsburgs' Inca conquests, and they receive one additional card.

Ottomans: 4
Hapsburgs: 6
England: 4
France: 3
Papacy: 3
Protestants: 4

With everyone's home cards and the card the Protestants kept from the previous turn, the Ottomans start with 5 cards; the Hapsburgs 7; the English 5; the French 4; the Papacy 5 and the Protestants 6.

**

With the cards dealt, it's time for the diplomacy phase. While the negotiation portion of the phase was going on, I put out a public statement in the name of the Ottoman Empire.

The Sublime Porte has learned that the King of Spain, who falsely calls himself Emperor, has made a completely unreasonable peace proposal to the King of the Franks, and threatens to continue his war on the Franks. Therefore, the Ottoman Empire publicly declares that the destruction of the Kingdom of the Franks is unacceptable to us, and we are prepared to do what is necessary to stop the false emperor. The Sublime Porte calls on the other rulers of Europe to recognize the threat that the schemes of the Hapsburgs pose to us all. Even the Bishop of Rome and his precious church are not safe from the treachery of the King of Spain.

The Hapsburgs are only four keys away from winning outright, and I don't want the game to end on the second turn!

After the negotiation phase, we announce any public deals that have been made. The Ottomans and Hapsburgs announce nothing, but England and France announce a white peace, ending their war at the status quo with no winner, and an alliance! France and the Papacy also announce a white peace.

With no more events in the Diplomacy phase, it's on to spring deployment, which kicks off with the French playing Venetian Informant to take a look at the Hapsburgs' cards.

After that, I get things started by sending Ibrāhīm Pasha to Belgrade with five regulars and a cavalry unit. The Hapsburgs deploy one regular from Valladolid to Barcelona; England announces that they have undertaken to protect the French, and deploys three regulars and one mercenary, led by Charles Brandon, to Nantes. The French, of course, cannot spring deploy as they don't control their capital; the Papacy decline. And with that, we're on to the action phase.

**

As my first impulse, I play Thomas More for 3 CP. Suleiman and Ibrāhīm Pasha lead eight regulars and one cavalry unit to Mohács and take control of it. We also build a corsair in Algiers.

The Hapsburgs play Printing Press for 5 CP, clearing out the unrest in Vienna, moving their fleets to sea and building two mercenaries in Antwerp, as well as one in Vienna. Sticking with our naval theme, England plays Frederick the Wise for 3 CP, sending an explorer to the New World and mobilizing their fleets: the fleet in London moves to the North Sea, and the fleets in Calais and Portsmouth to the Channel. The French play their home card, Patron of the Arts, for 5 CP, recruiting two mercenaries in Rouen and three in Marseilles. The Papacy uses Papal Bull to recruit a regular and some mercenaries in Rome, and the Protestants hit the Hapsburgs with Cloth Prices Fluctuate, making them discard Arquebusiers, and placing unrest in Innsbruck and Trieste.

On my impulse, I play Charles Bourbon for 4 CP. Suleiman leads his army to Buda where we crush the Hungarians, losing only one cavalry unit in the process. This triggers the fall of Hungary-Bohemia as per section 22.5 of the rulebook: all Hungarian spaces occupied by the Ottomans, including keys under siege, fall under our control; the rest go to the Hapsburgs as Hungary-Bohemia is activated as a Hapsburg ally. I get two victory points for winning my war against Hungary-Bohemia, as well as control of Buda, which puts me up to 16 VP; the Hapsburgs now control Prague, gaining 1 VP, and we are now at war. Suleiman then marches to Pressburg, takes control of it, and besieges Vienna.

The Hapsburgs respond with Auld Alliance for 3 CP, recruiting a mercenary in Navarre and sending an explorer to the New World. The English play their home card, Six Wives of Henry VIII, and declare war on the Hapsburgs. We've now gone from France being at war with everyone to the Hapsburgs being at war with the Ottomans, the English and the French.

With their five command points, the English send their Channel fleet into the Bay of Biscay. After an unsuccesful interception attempt by the Hapsburgs' Atlantic fleet, Brandon's army lands in Spain and captures Corunna, and marches on Valladolid. Both Hapsburg capitals are now under siege!

The French play Erasmus for command points, recruiting a mercenary in Bordeaux and sending an explorer to the New World. The Papacy plays John Zapolya and uses the command points to raise more troops in Rome, and the Protestants play Pirate Haven.

With these reinforcements to our navy, it's time to get started. I play Janissaries for command points. First, our corsairs sally forth from Algiers and Oran, and the Hapsburg fleets in the Gulf of Lyon and the Tyrrhenian Sea succesfully intercept them. We score no hits whatsoever, but they only sink one corsair; the pirate fleet retreats to the Gulf of Lyon. Meanwhile, the naval squadron at Coron has deployed into the Ionian Sea, and another naval move takes them into the Barbary Coast for a crack at the Hapsburg ships. We're completely unsuccesful again, losing one squadron and inflicting no damage. The Hapsburgs' obscene luck with the dice, first seen in the battle of Paris last turn, continues: I rolled a total of 13 dice in these naval encounters without scoring one single hit.

Luckily Barbarossa's piracy in the Gulf of Lyon is more succesful, scoring two hits and taking no casualties. The King of Spain is forced to eliminate one of their naval squadrons, and I get my first piracy VP! Finally, with my last command point, Suleiman leads the assault on Vienna. Rolling six dice against the Hapsburgs' three, we both score two hits, which is enough to eliminate the garrison: the Ottoman army takes Vienna.

This puts me up to 19 victory points and into the lead past the Papacy's 18.

For their part, the Hapsburgs play Holy Roman Emperor, moving Charles V to Navarre, where he recruits three mercenary units and marches the entire garrison via Bilbao to Valladolid to break the English siege. Brandon's army succesfully avoids battle and falls back to Corunna. The English then play Andrea Doria for command points: Brandon marches to Bilbao, evading a Hapsburg interception attempt from Valladolid, and lays siege to Navarre; a regular is mobilized in Calais, and the Calais army besieges Antwerp. With only one card left in their hand, France skips their impulse.

You might have noticed that the Reformation has been left in the shadow of the grand alliance against the Hapsburgs this turn. No longer: the Papacy plays Leipzig Debate and calls a theological debate in Germany, mandating Luther stay out of it.

So we roll to find who debates who, and it ends up being a rerun of last turn with Eck facing Carlstadt. This looks bad for the Protestants, but they pull off a surprise win, with the hits going 3-2 in their favor! Carlstadt's debate performance converts the burghers of Nürnberg to Protestantism. The Protestants follow up on this unexpected success with Sale of Moluccas for 3 CP, calling another debate in German. This time it's Johannes Oecolampadius vs Hieronymous Aleander: a far more even matchup for the Protestants, which they again win with one hit. Combined with Aleander's ability, that allows them to convert the electorates of Augsburg and Mainz: the Protestants now hold four of six electorates, eleven spaces in total, and knock a victory point from the Papacy, leaving them at 17-3.

I've played my home card, and I have two cards in my hand, neither of which is a mandatory event; because my administrative rating is 2, I could keep both cards for next turn and am allowed to skip my impulse. So Suleiman is spending some quality time in the Hofburg, browsing the Hapsburg imperial treasury. The King of Spain plays Unpaid Mercenaries for 3 CP, marching from Valladolid to Bilbao with the whole garrison, and moving the lone regular in Barcelona to Zaragoza. The army in Bilbao leaves one regular behind and marches on Navarre, but the Hapsburgs' luck with the dice momentarily deserts them: they score no hits and lose two mercenaries, and are forced to withdraw.

The English play Trace Italienne for 3 CP: they recruit a mercenary in Calais and assault Navarre and Antwerp. Since Navarre has no garrison, the English roll five dice, but score no hits and fail to take the key, losing a mercenary in the bargain. The assault on Antwerp also fails, with both sides losing one unit. So far this turn, the Hapsburgs have had 35 dice rolled against them in combat. With hits scored on 5+, we've combined to inflict a total of 5 hits on those 35 dice. This is the situation on the western front after the English impulse.

France skips again, and the Papacy plays Revolt in Ireland for command points, marching an army of two regulars and two mercenaries to Siena, taking control of it and besieging Florence. The Protestants then use their home card Here I Stand to fetch Printing Press from the discard pile and play it immediately.

The three reformation attempts target Trier, Cologne and Basel, and are all succesful. On my impulse, I play A Mighty Fortress as an event, granting the Protestants six reformation attempts in the German language zone.

The Protestants succesfully convert Erfurt, Kassel, Brunswick, Hamburg and Worms, only failing in Prague. This takes them up to a total of 19 Protestant spaces, including all six electorates. The VP split on the Religious Struggle card is now 10-5 to the Papacy, from 12-3.

The Hapsburgs in turn play Treachery! for 5 CP, recruiting three mercenaries in Valladolid, marching them to Bilbao and attacking the English army in Navarre with the entire army bar one regular. The English lose two regulars and retreat to Bordeaux, while the Hapsburgs lose one mercenary unit.

With no cards left, the English have to skip their impulse, and the French do the same. The Papacy plays Janissaries Rebel for 2 CP, succesfully storming Florence and spending the other command point on St. Peter's. The Protestants make maximum use of Printing Press by playing Diplomatic Marriage for command points and publishing a treatise in German. The treatise succesfully converts Salzburg and Strasbourg, and the rest of the command points set up a debate between Melanchton and Campeggio. Campeggio defies the odds and wins by a single hit, returning the electorate of Cologne to the Catholic faith.

I skip again, and so does everyone else, which means that the action phase is over!

**

Now it's on to the Winter Phase, where our armies and fleets return home. Suleiman travels back to Istanbul with two regulars; the navy in the Ionian Sea winters at Coron, and Barbarossa's corsairs return to Algiers. The Hapsburg regulars in Bilbao, Zaragoza and Navarre return to Valladolid, and the fleets winter at Seville and Gibraltar. The English armies return to London and Calais, and the fleets winter in Calais and Corunna. According to the English player, they're setting up pubs in their corner of Spain, meaning that the Hapsburgs' war seems to have led to the invention of English tourism. War really is hell.

Finally, we have a mandatory event to resolve. The sequence of play chart lists certain mandatory events which are resolved at the end of the winter phase if no-one has played that card in the action phase. Therefore, at the end of the second turn, Clement VII is resolved: the pope is dead, long live the pope.

**

The last segment of the turn is the New World phase. Somehow, despite a massive land and sea war all over Europe, every single eligible power managed to send an explorer to the New World, and now we have to figure out what happened to them. First, we select an available explorer at random from each power.

Then, we roll 2d6 for each explorer, in descending numeric value order (i.e. best explorer first), to see where they ended up. Although Pánfilo de Narváez's expedition for the Hapsburgs was unsuccesful on the first turn, the fact that it happened means the Hapsburg explorer no longer suffers the -1 "Uncharted" penalty; the French and English do. Francisco de Orellana Bejarano Pizarro y Torres de Altamirano goes first: he discovers the St. Lawrence river and nets the Hapsburgs 1 VP. Richard Chancellor and Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval both return empty-handed, but their voyages do nullify the -1 penalty for any future French and English explorers.

**

So that was the second turn! Everyone was dealt their cards on the 27th of April; Orellana discovered the St. Lawrence on the 18th of June, just before Midsummer. The Hapsburgs went from a very succesful blitzkrieg into France to a very defensive mode this turn, while Suleiman marched on Vienna and the Reformation fairly exploded across Germany. The stage is set for a potentially interesting diplomacy phase!

**

Diplomatic situation:

The Hapsburgs are at war with England, France and the Ottomans
France is allied with Scotland
The Hapsburgs are allied with Hungary-Bohemia

Victory points:

Protestants 6
France 8
England 11
Hapsburgs 14
Papacy 16
Ottomans 19

Protestant spaces: 20
(victory points papacy 9 - protestants 6)

Cards removed from the game:

Luther's 95 Theses
Peasants' War
Barbary Pirates
Defender of the Faith
Clement VII

Explorers removed: Narváez (-1)

Turn 3 is here.