C&C: Is this war suicidal?

I've been looking over the Naseby chapter of the C&C core roles. And given that the Royalists are fighting on with powerful magic at their disposal, I'm wondering whether there is an endgame that does not involve mutual annihilation. Given how rapidly and enormously the destructive potential of both armies has escalated and how deeply entrenched they are, I wonder if the only peace is possible when both sides have destroyed each other.

I imagine a lot of people will find North America an appealing prospect. This of course assumes the war doesn't spread to the colonies, in which case the English-speaking world looks pretty much bleeped.

I also imagine that a lot of the activity of player characters takes place in the aftermath of campaigns -- picking up the pieces, so to speak, and helping survivors with the aftermath so they can have communities again. How attractive it is actually serving one side or the other in the war seems an open question.

Yes - the war has got suicidal. That's why, aside from in the Debatable Lands (where there is grim trench warfare, also being fought to a stalemate), there is a general truce between the field armies. That's not to say there aren't countless sieges and skirmishes, plots and political manoeuvrings, but neither side is mobilizing its main force for a set battle.

The Puritans and fellow travelers do find North America appealing - but they are actually coming back from the colonies to fight for Cromwell.

A lot of the campaigns I run involve an alliance of enemies, fighting against a threat to everyone, or indeed, on exactly the sort of mercy mission you are describing.

I understand that historically the North (mainly New England) supported Cromwell, and that the Southern colonies (at the time Virginia and the Carolinas) were more likely to attract Royalists seeking safe exile. The South certainly built up an aristocracy (on what basis I'm not entirely clear), while the North disdained any such airs.

By the way, what is happening in Europe while all this is going on in England? Is this magic/technology being used to fight the Thirty Years' War as well? Are any monarchs or generals in Europe trying to integrate both approaches into their force, creating truly unstoppable death machines? Is anyone looking across the Channel and thinking of using England's chaos to their own advantage, in such a way that England's independence itself is threatened?

We haven't really expanded on the Thirty Years War (although it's in the prologue of The Alchemist's Revenge), except to say that the clockwork tech hasn't been utilised in that war ... yet. Events in that conflict are considered to be pretty much the same as they were in the real world. That's not to say there isn't plenty of weirdness possible - Clockwork & Chivalry mixes real history (and a satirical take on real history) with a hefty dose of folklore.

The war on the mainland does mean that the major European powers are mostly too preoccupied with threats at home to bother with interfering in the ECW (although foreign emissaries, along with mercenary and volunteer troops, are present in large numbers, fighting for Cromwell or Prince Rupert).

Of course, you might decide it's more exciting to generalise the spread of clockwork tech and alchemical magick across the whole of Europe, in which case who knows what has happened?

Hmmm. Seems like there's a setting idea there. Post apocalyptic game play in 1655! A Europe devastated by Philosopher-Stone powered weapons! Rampaging clock-work murder-dolls, alchemical abominations, and the dread Wormwood Legions...

The real Thirty Years' War was horrific enough. Four out of five German villages were destroyed by battles between the assorted Catholic and Protestant forces. And that's before you factor in disease, starvation (couldn't grow crops with all that shooting going on), general anarchy and lawlessness, and witchcraft and werewolfery trials. The war might have actually ended earlier than it did, but Cardinal Richelieu (of Catholic France) actually funded the Protestant side to keep it going. Seems supporting the Pope was less important than ensuring that a united Germany didn't threaten France. Post-apocalyptic indeed.

Hmmm. Seems like there's a setting idea there. Post apocalyptic game play in 1655! A Europe devastated by Philosopher-Stone powered weapons! Rampaging clock-work murder-dolls, alchemical abominations, and the dread Wormwood Legions...

By Hastur, that's brilliant! Add alchemical mutants and clockwork cyborgs and you've got 17th Century Gamma World. I want to play this now!

Hmmm. Seems like there's a setting idea there. Post apocalyptic game play in 1655! A Europe devastated by Philosopher-Stone powered weapons! Rampaging clock-work murder-dolls, alchemical abominations, and the dread Wormwood Legions...

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