The Adventures of George and Martha Washington (and also the rest of USA) - A 1772 Singleplayer Experience

[Lars]

My name is Lars and I have a dream. For around eight months, I've been wanting to roll dice in AMPU. Last week I finally got my hands on a squeaky clean 1772 playtest sheet and was allowed to go wild.

I wont bore you with the details, so here it goes: I'm gonna play as a George Washington led faction. We are gonna kick some British ass, create a bunch of weird states (looking at you, Canada) and write a really dank constitution.

As the sole player and dice roller, I get to make my own rules, so here's how this differs from all the other 1772 playtests here:

 

1) I wont report every single little roll. While probably very fun, I'd rather roll dice than talk about how John William Bobberts has gotten the gout-trait, preventing him from running for state legislature. However, we are still gonna talk about fan favorites like Hiester and such. They are fun.

2) I'm adding the most realistic of the what-if special draft pols. Say hello to a bunch of women, Toussaint Louverture Ted Polishname and a few more.

3) I'm testing a couple of house rules:

• Women can enter backrooms politics despite the lack of suffrage. Likewise, if her husband becomes president, she can become key advisor.
• No moving pols in the very first phase, but an extra chance for the CPU to move ideologies based on their draft ideologies.
• The most important rule from Calvinball: If I dont understand what happened, I reserve the right to consult more experienced dice rollers to redo the event.

4) When reasonable, I want to explain why Lars the player did what he did.

5) Have fun.

 

[Lars]

reserved

[Lars]

reserved

[Lars]

reserved

[MrPotatoTed]

Ooh, I like your spouses can be Key Advisor rule.

[Lars]

Meet your factions!

 

Red team:

 

The Conservative Patriots

Conservative, Nationalists, Law & Order

Leader: John Rutledge

(2 legislative, 2 governing, 3 judicial, 1 admin), justice expert, right wing activist, controversial debater with leadership.

They say that if you far enough to the right in British North America, you run into someone who's not moderate. This faction has one single moderate politician (Casimir Pulaski) and a group of military heavy hitters, including fan favorite Pierce Butler.

It's a bold call to have Rutledge as faction leader when both Henry Laurens and Benjamin Lincoln are present, but we are hopeful that the youngster will do great.

 

 

The Franklin Patriots

Moderate, Civil Rights

Leader: Benjamin Franklin

(stats are too many to list)

Benny boy needs no introduction, nor do I need to argue why he's faction leader. This faction is two-thirds moderates with some more right wing elements to it. The most interesting people are William Franklin (real life Loyalist), Abigail Adams (woman), Benedict Arnold (pimp) and Friedrich W von Steuben (German).

They can kinda go anywhere at this point. A few unlucky death rolls or scripted events can handicap them, but at the same time they are loaded with talent.

 

 

The Washington Patriots

Moderate, Expansionists, Big Agriculture, Big Corporations, Wall Street

Leader: George "George" Washington

(again, stats are plentyful)

The CPU is really bad at drafting. That's how I ended up stealing three big lobbies. Outside of that, I picked liberally from all my draft ideologies (lib, mod, con) to steal as many potential govenors as possible. The idea is that if I get enough states, I get to be the big swinging dick of America.

 

 

The Moderate Patriots

Moderate, Expansionists, Human Rights

Leader: John Adams

(Micromanager, cop, jurisprudence, integrity and a lot of more)

The young John Adams is a powerhouse. At only 37, he can do just about anything short of going to war or be a govenor. As the second POTUS OTL and his ideological proximity to my faction, he's going to ride on my coattails and then probably become president to spite me.

 

The American Whigs

Moderate, Liberal, Progressive, Civil Rights, Human Rights

Leader: George Wythe

(1 command, 1 legislative, 1 governing, 3 judicial), Education, Justice, Civil Rights, Reformist, Leadership, Egghead, Integrity

I know what you are thinking: "Whigs, in my America?" Well, apparently they are a valid faction name. Wythe got some juicy rolls when elected faction leader which has established him as an outsider for presidency once day. 

Outside of that, we got guys like William Paca(mander), Israel Putnam and my favorite special draft guy: Toussaint Louverture, the father of Haiti.

 

 

 

 

Blue team:

 

Sons of Liberty

Conservative, Traditionalist, RW Pop, RW Activists, Big Agriculture

Leader: Thomas Jefferson

(2 command, 2 legislative, 1 governing, 3 admin), Agriculture, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Science, Trade, Expansionist, Reformist, RW Activist, Charisma, Iron Fist, Leadership, Manipulative, Puritan, Controversial, Cosmopolitan, Naive strategist, domestic warrior

My hands cramped up twice while typing his traits. If you are wondering what happened to him, considering the following: First he became a protege of George Mason, then he got okay rolls as faction leader.

He's only 29 and he scares me.

 

The Hart Patriots

Moderate, Reformists

Leader: John Hart

(1 legislative, 1 governing, 1 judicial), agriculture, welfare, integrity, kingmaker, leadership, likable, incoherent, obscure

Okay, lets get the obvious questions out of the way: Yes, this is supposedly the CONSERVATIVE faction, but they ran out of conservatives to draft and got the moderate card. John Hart (who?) was the highest rated moderate pol, so I gave him the job. Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Charles Scott and Andrew Pickens must be SEETHING.

Hart getting kingmaker is crazy, because now this faction has three out of eight kingmakers in this game. Also present: Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

 

The Clinton Patriots

Moderate, expansionists, military-industry

Leader: George Clinton

(1 command, 2 legislative, 3 governing, 1 military), justice, military, iron fist, leadership, provincial, bookkeeper, obscure, crisis manager

If you want someone to rule the country through a crisis, Clinton is not necessarily your guy. He has a lot of decent traits, running a faction full of decent moderate pols. It's not an amazing lineup, but its a line up that wont disappoint.

 

The Randolph Patriots

Moderate, civil rights, military-industry

Leader: Peyton Randolph

(2 command, 2 legislative, 1 admin), agriculture, justice, frail, kingmaker, leadership, unlikable, obscure, passive

It's a similiar situation with the Hart Patriots: The obvious leader had a funky ideology, so the best moderate got the job. However, it's painfully clear that Boudinot should run this faction instead of Cranky Randy here.

Also, it's home of Francis Lightfoot Lee!

 

The Adams Patriots

Moderate, reformists

Leader: Samuel Adams

(2 legislative, 2 governing) business, LW activist, reformist, charisma, disharmonious, leadership, propagandist, provincial

As with all the factions in 1772, nobody ever actually manages to check all boxes in terms of becoming a faction leader. While in other factions, I defaulted to the best of the ideology card they actually had. Not this time. The best moderate meant skipping over two-thirds of the faction, so we went with the volatile Samuel (L.) Adams.

A left wing populist running a faction that consists mostly of moderates? What could go wrong? Oh, and Daniel Hiester is in the faction, chilling on the career track. I suspect this will be the favorite faction to follow.

 

 

 

[MrPotatoTed]

That's interesting that you've already got a Wall Street Lobby.  I assume that means you've got ten politicians in your faction with economics experience?

In our game, it's 1780 and no Wall Street lobby.

 

[Lars]

2 minutes ago, MrPotatoTed said:

That's interesting that you've already got a Wall Street Lobby.  I assume that means you've got ten politicians in your faction with economics experience?

In our game, it's 1780 and no Wall Street lobby.

 

I did actively target the card, yes.

[Lars]

Just ran the "elections" for the first continental congress. I'm not gonna type up a storm, but wait until after the whole phase to make stuff.

 

But Im not gonna hide some results from you:

RED: 24

BLUE: 15

 

Washington Patriots (me): 7 members

Conservative Patriots: 6

Franklin Patriots: 6

Moderate Patriots: 4

American Whigs: 1

 

Randolph Patriots: 6

Hart Patriots: 4

Sons of Liberty: 3

Clinton Patriots: 1

Adams Patriots: 1

 

 

By ideology:

 

RW Pop: 0

Trad: 1

Cons: 17

Mods: 17

Libs: 2

Progs: 1

LW Pop: 1

 

Faction leaders elected: John Hart, Benjamin Franklin, John Rutledge

[Murrman104]

Who was the one LW Pop elected if it wasnt Samuel Adams?

[Lars]

@Murrman104Amos Singletary, on the virtue of rolling a 6 then winning a tie.

[Lars]

The life and times of the First Continental Congress - Part Uno

"Pay taxes" said King George.

"No" said Samuel Adams and threw tea into the ocean.

This upset King George, and as such, our brave heroes slash patriots decided to call a Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774.

 

The prelude to all this had been a bunch of arguing and manhandling within the patriots. Thomas Jefferson had stolen several politicians from John Hart, and Samuel Adams stolen several ideology cards from George Wythe.

Thus the fronts were drawn up between populists and moderates as 39 men was elected to go to Philadelphia. Notable absentees were George Washington, Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson, all of failing to get appointed due to random factors outside of American control (dice).

 

However, the influence of Washington was not to be ignored. His faction got the most delegates, so they got to pick the first president of the Continental Congress. The job went Samuel Huntington, whom everyone could agree had no negative or positive traits and was very eglible.

Sam then proceeded to appoint his four closest faction mates as commitee chairs and then make a very arbritary job at selecting commitee members.

 

Domestic Commitee

HEAD: Joshua Clayton

Amos Singletary
Benjamin Huntington
James Wood
John Langdon
Richard Stockton
Thomas McKean
Thomas Scott
William Floyd

 

Economics Commitee

HEAD: Daniel Carroll

Nathaniel Gorham
Benjamin Lincoln
Henry Middleton
John Rutledge
Joseph Hewes
James Jones
Paine Wingate
Samuel Chase

 

Foreign/Military Commitee

HEAD: Artemas Ward

Benjamin Franklin
John Collins
Jeremiah Van Rennselaer
Theodorick Bland
Timothy Bloodworth
Robert Goldsborough
Thomas Tillinghast
James Smith

 

Justice Commitee (affectionately known as "the cringe bin")

HEAD: Thomas Fitzsimons

John Hanson
Elias Boudinot
Andrew Pickens
John Hart
Lachlan McIntosh
Alexander McDougall
Thomas Chittenden
Carter Braxton
John Penn

 

They would have many big issues to deal with: The British, global trade and why was John Hart suddenly getting so good at everything?

None of this would be resolved in part two!

[Lars]

The life and times of the First Continental Congress - Part Dos

"George, stop having a life and get back to telling us the story" hissed Martha from around the mansion.

"Jeez, fine woman..." sighed George.

 

So in September 1774, almost all of the newly appointed delegates made it to Philadelphia for the first continental congress. I say everyone, because the head of the judicial commitee, Thomas Fitzsimons had decided to retire circa 20 seconds after getting apointed due to a random event. Elias Boudinot from the blues would take up the task.

 

In between this and that, VIOLENCE OCCURED. The battle of Lexington and Concord was a resounding snorefest, resolving in people agreeing there should be a declaration of resolves, which should resolve the problem between the Original British and the Colonial British. None of this mattered, except for the Conservative Patriots who got a mad ton of "points" which is how you measure success in politics.

 

The first Congress passed six legislations. Five of these were as expected and planned:

 

• Establish Continental Army
• Establish Continental Navy
• Seek Alliance with anti-British Native Tribes
• Declaration of Causes
• Create Framework to punish British Loyalists

 

Noone had any complaints about those and they passed with ease.

 

However, the damn liberals wanted to boycott British goods. In itself a really good piece of legislation, but here Washington decided to get spicy and have Artemas Ward block it and replace with a little piece called "Invade Canada".

Players note: Basically, I want more war so I get more chances to get more glorious victories and such. "Boycott British Goods" is legitimately a really a good piece of legislation to pass normally, so I very much expect to pass the next time around. However, I had a chance and no rules blocked me from doing this, so to war we go.

Invading Canada actually passed pretty comfortably too, meaning that the Thirteen Colonies would enter the next turn at war on two fronts.

 

Now, let me save you a lot of time by boiling down the next 45 minutes of math into it's outcomes:

Conservatives now like the red team a bit more than before.

The government now seems a bit more honest than before.

The Spanish like us a little bit more than before.

 

Thats the entire outcome of literal days of rolling dice.

[Lars]

With two turns having passed, lets sum up the points:

 

RED: 2900
BLUE: 2000

 

Red:

Conservative Patriots: 1550
Lars: 750
Moderate Patriots: 500
Franklin Patriots: 50
American Whigs: 50 (whom are about to lose their name, because they suck at everything)

 

Blue:

Clinton Patriots: 1100
Hart Patriots: 400
Adam Patriots/Sons of Liberty (LW): 300
Randolph Patriots: 150
Sons of Liberty (RW): 50

 

While Franklin Patriots and the Ex-Whigs get the participation award, Jefferson and his wings of the Sons get even less. They came from leading the game going into Congress, to losing two thirds of their points on piece of legislation (The Tory Act). Lets hope it gets better.

[Lars]

So basically, I've made a slight fucky wucky which I'm currently asking some smart people about.

 

Lee's Resolution was never proposed.

No Lee means Declaration of Independence.

No Declaration means no govenors.

No govenors mean no way to appoint guys for the second continental congress.

The rules are kinda vague about it. It very much assumes you'd pass such an important thing. But it just didnt look important when I was looking at the possible legislations.

 

As such, we are currently very much at war with the Brits and rest of British North America, without actually having declared an independence.

 

I'm looking at two potential outcomes:

1) Keep the original 38 blokes around for another half-term. (im leaning towards this)

2) Backtrack slightly to run elections for a second First Continental Congress

 

I'll find out what to do.

[MrPotatoTed]

6 hours ago, Lars said:

So basically, I've made a slight fucky wucky which I'm currently asking some smart people about.

 

Lee's Resolution was never proposed.

No Lee means Declaration of Independence.

No Declaration means no govenors.

No govenors mean no way to appoint guys for the second continental congress.

The rules are kinda vague about it. It very much assumes you'd pass such an important thing. But it just didnt look important when I was looking at the possible legislations.

 

As such, we are currently very much at war with the Brits and rest of British North America, without actually having declared an independence.

 

I'm looking at two potential outcomes:

1) Keep the original 38 blokes around for another half-term. (im leaning towards this)

2) Backtrack slightly to run elections for a second First Continental Congress

 

I'll find out what to do.

I believe the rules are actually clear about this.  "Prior to Governor’s, the player with the highest number of politicians from a state will select delegates (randomized if tied)"

You can see the number of politicians from each state a faction has under the PolData tab.  Whoever has the most Connecticut politicians will appoint the Connecticut delegates, whoever has the most Georgian politicians will choose the Georgian delegates, etc.  If there's a tie, roll a die to choose randomly between them.

[Lars]

As per our discussion in the DM's, thanks @MrPotatoTed

[Lars]

Well, here's how I'm gonna play it:

 

1) Faction realignment is almost done. This includes the draft, meaning that...
2) The handpicking of new delegates based on who has the most dudes in state might be off.
3) And then the new leadership picks all the generals and such and 1776-78 will be the first phase of WAR!

 

 

[Lars]

20 minutes ago, Lars said:

The handpicking of new delegates based on who has the most dudes in state might be off.

I immediatedly regret this.

[Lars]

The factions of 1776 and probably beyond

 

Due to rule arguments and the passage of time, the factions have realigned ever so slightly. Lets go briefly summarize them!

 

Sons of Liberty (RW) (BlooTradCPU)

Leader: Thomas Jefferson

Notable guys: James Madison, Edward Telfair, George Mason

Cards: Conservatives, Traditionalists, RW Populists    Expansionists, RW Activists    Big Agriculture

The Hart Patriots (BlooConCPU)

Leader: John Hart

Notable guys: Richard Henry Lee, Paul Brigham

Cards: Moderates        Big Agriculture

The Clinton Patriots (BlooModCPU)

Leader: George Clinton

Notable guys: John "The Cock" Hancock, 

Cards: Moderates        Military-Industrial

The Randolph Patriots (BlooLibCPU)

Leader: Peyton Randolph     

Notable guys: Elias Boudinot, Francis Lightfoot Lee

Card, singular: Moderates     

   
Sons of Liberty (LW) (BlooProgCPU)

Leader: Samuel Adams  

Notable guys: Daniel Hiester, Thomas Paine (Train)

Cards: LW Populists, Progressives, Liberals, Moderates    LW Activists    
    

Tradionalist Patriots (RedTradCPU)

Leader: John Rutledge    

Notable guys: Pierce Butler, Eliphant Dyer, several Ingersolls, several Rutledges

Cards: Conservatives, Traditionalists     Law & Order

The Franklin Patriots (RedConCPU)

Leader: Benjamin Franklin  

Notable people: Daniel Morgan, Benny Arnold, Nathaniel Greene, Abigail Adams

Cards: Moderates        Globalists

The Washington Patriots (PLAYER_LARS)

Leader: George Washington

Notable people: three more guys with 3 MIL, former CC president Samuel Huntington, Martha

Cards: Moderates        Big Agriculture, Big Corps

The Moderate Patriots (RedLibCPU)

Leader: John Adams

Notable guys: Roger Sherman, John Jay

Cards: Moderates        Human Rights

The Wythe Patriots (RedProgCPU) f/k/a as The American Whigs (until Sammy Adams ruined that)

Leader: George Wythe

Notable guys: Toussaint Louverture, William the Paca-mander, Israel Putnam

Cards: Moderates    Civil Rights    

 

There are three main takeaways from this:

1) Not much leadership material to work with

2) Jefferson won the Madison sweepstakes

3) We lost Wall Street but gained the globalists!

 

Coming up next, making a mess of the Second Continental Congress!

 

[Lars]

Also worth noting: George Clinton have hit five governing just now. This makes him the first guy to hit five in anything.

[Lars]

The Second Continental Congress

 

A fun thing happend on the way to Forum. Adams and his Moderate Patriots kinda sorta ended up with 11 out of 39 delegates, so he got to call all the shots. However, only one red pol had the requirements to actually become President of the Continental Congress.

 

"Stacking" Benjamin Franklin! Having the elusive mix of being both on the red team, being picked for Congress and having more zero command, he was the obvious choice for the post. The other options were Edward Telfair and Francis Lightfoot Lee, both of the smelly blue team.

 

Feast your eyes on this list of comittees to soothe your day:

 

Domestic

Leader: Eliphalet Dyer

Andrew Adams
William Few
William Paca
John Penn
Samuel Tenney
Isaac Roosevelt I
James Duane
James Mitchell Varnum
Christopher Gadsden

FA/MIL

Leader: Charles Biddle

Nicholas Van Dyke
Richard Adams Jr
Upton Sheredine
Benjamin Williams
Richard Stockton
Lewis Morris
Thomas Tillinghast
Francis Lightfoot Lee
John Tyler Sr

Econ

Leader: James Bowdoin (yours truly)

John Patten
Samuel Osgood
William Smallwood
William Blount
Francis Hopkinson
John Morton
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Nelson Jr

Judicial

Roger Sherman

Edward Telfair
Robert Treat Paine
Samuel Chase
Matthew Thornton
William Franklin
William Maclay
William Moultrie
John Smith
 

 

From running every committee and every selection to merely running the economic commitee. Quite a step down for my faction and its all due to silly RNG. We will fix that one day.

 

Now, considerably more important, the Moderate Patriots stinky AI Charles Biddle is in charge of picking generals and such. However, that would fall into confirmation hearings as per the rules of the era. We will get into that later!

 

[Lars]

Military appointments of 1776

"Lets yankee doodle this shit" - George Washington

 

Charles Biddle set about following the CPU rules and hiring the best guys possible. When we ran out of those, it started to hire a bunch of skill 2 guys.

 

The follow generals were appointed and passed the Continental Congress unanonimously... unanimously... noone voted against, okay?

 

Senior General: George Washington

Other generals:

• Arthur St. Clair
• Benjamin Lincoln
• Nathanael Greene
• Daniel Morgan
• William Moultrie

 

Chief Admiral: none (to my understanding of the rules, one is promoted internally from the squadron commanders at some point)

Squadron commanders:

• Henry Knox
• John Paul Jones

 

I wasnt actually happy about this. The only two candidates for Senior General was Washington and Ward, both mine. I very much expect to lose a bunch of the early battles, so having Washington disgraced would suck.

 

 

This left us with four appointments which didnt pass the bar called "we'll just approve the bloke":

• Benedict Arnold (controversial AF)
• Samuel Nicholas (skill 2)
• Esek Hopkins (skill 2)
• Abraham Whipple (skill 2)

 

There was some back and forth in the congress, and despite me voting for, here are the outcomes:

• Arnold: 6 states for, 7 against
• Nicholas: 12 states for, Georgia against
• Hopkins: 11 states for, 2 against
• Whipple: 8 states for, 5 against

So I regret to inform everyone that Benedict Arnold might not have his redemption arc in this game.

 

Coming up next was the dice rolls and stat gains. Normally I wouldn't post this, but they are so juicy and good for me, I had to share them:

My very own Henry Knox now has 4 military skill, naval and military leader. This makes him the obvious candidate for chief admiral, as well as the best damn warrior in the Thirteen Colonies.

As if that wasnt enough, William Moultrie, also mine, got the same boost. At four 4 military and with military leader, he's next in line when (if?) Washington slips up.

 

Up next, a bunch of random numbers flash at me. I hold up to my clothes. I am crying. Mother Nature pretends to not hear me. She hears me. And after that, actual legislation stuff.

 

[Lars]

I regret to inform everyone that the William "The Pacamander" Paca has died from tuberculosis at the age of 36.

 

This death announcement has been sponsored by Lars' Death and Retirements Rolling Python Script! Rolls everything 200 times faster! Ask me how you can get your hands on it!

[Lars]

Final post for the night!

 

Deaths and retirements:

Lydia Taft from the RedLibCPU faction is dead at 64. Cause of death: Pneumonia
Philip Livingston from the BlooProgCPU faction is dead at 60. Cause of death: Smallpox
William Paca from the RedProgCPU faction is dead at 36. Cause of death: Tuberculosis
David Bard from the BlooLibCPU faction is dead at 32. Cause of death: Pneumonia
John Bartram from the PLAYER_LARS has retired. Reason: Undefined reasons
Thomas Penn from the RedTradCPU has retired. Reason: Family reasons
Jonathan Trumbull Sr from the RedTradCPU has retired. Reason: Allegedly pressured out
Francis Lewis from the RedConCPU has retired. Reason: Satisfied with the work they've done and want to consider other things

 

Generic events:

Presidential ailment: Franklin loses a lot of stuff. He's still pretty good though. The CPU keeps him in office until his term is up, but with no command, he wont be eglible again.

Scandalous Office Holder: With no office holders, its hard to imagine a scandalous one. We move on.

 

 

Scripted events:

Proclamation of Rebellion: Franklin errs on the side of caution. We claim to be loyal to the king, but insisting that parliament has no authority over us. Domestic stability drops.

 

Prohibitory Act: Lord North, First Lord of the Treasury, decides that the rebellious colonies arent allowed to trade with British colonies or Britain itself. The revenue drops thusly.

Dunmore's Proclamation: The royal govenor of Virginia tries to provoke a tiny bit of slave rebellion. Franklin respond by mumbling something about states rights and doing nothing about it.

Virginia Declaration of Rights: George Mason has declared that "Virginia is for lovers." A boatload of points summarily enter blue teams account.

American Spy Nathan Hale Hanged by the British: He's dead. Very dead.

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: My faction gains 50 free points we lost in the Prohibitory Act.

 

 

Internal affairs and diplomacy is skipped because they dont exist yet.

Tomorrow: War, what is it good for? The answer might surprise you!