# Campaign mechanics
## Command and diplomacy
A ruler's orders apply only through institutions, ministers and commanders who can receive and enforce them. A personal union shares a monarch, not a treasury, parliament, army or foreign policy: Great Britain and Hanover therefore act separately when their interests diverge. The same distinction applies to the Polish crown and Saxon electorate. Treaties create obligations but do not erase local interests. Breaking an agreement damages trust and can trigger defections, diplomatic isolation or war.
## Mobilization and force
Force Strength records personnel actually assigned to an army, not a state's theoretical manpower. Recruitment increases it only when trained men, officers, weapons, pay and time are available. Each campaign turn of sustained recruitment increases costs and reduces the labor and tax base at home. Losses reduce Force Strength through killed, wounded, captured, missing, disease and desertion; wounded and missing men do not instantly return. Armies cannot teleport between fronts. March speed depends on roads, terrain, weather, fatigue, baggage and hostile territory.
## Supply and morale
Supply Status is one of four bands: Secure, Adequate, Strained and Critical. A force operating from a stocked magazine or reliable port can remain Secure. When daily consumption exceeds deliveries, supply falls one band after a sustained shortfall; a long or severe shortfall can skip a band only when the army is cut off. At Critical supply, desertion and sickness rise, artillery and cavalry readiness fall, and Morale cannot improve through speeches alone. Morale uses Broken, Low, Shaken, Steady and High. Defeat, unpaid wages, hunger, forced marches and poor command lower it; rest, pay, food, successful operations and trusted leadership can raise it. Recovery takes time.
## Battle
Battle outcomes depend on effective numbers, training, command, morale, fatigue, formation, reconnaissance, terrain, weather, artillery, cavalry and supply. A numerical advantage is not an automatic victory. Forests, rivers, marshes, hills and fortified positions restrict movement and can protect a smaller force. A commander who attacks without scouting risks ambush and poor deployment. Orders may arrive late or be misunderstood. After combat, casualties, prisoners, missing men, equipment losses and unit cohesion must be accounted for separately.
## Fortresses and sieges
A siege requires investment, artillery or a blockade, engineers, ammunition and a secure supply line. A fortress does not fall merely because an enemy army occupies the surrounding countryside. Defenders can hold while magazines last and morale remains organized. Bombardment, mining, assault, disease, starvation, relief forces and negotiated capitulation affect the result. An assault without a breach or a clear advantage causes severe losses.
## Naval and overseas war
Fleets are limited by seaworthiness, trained crews, stores, repair capacity, wind, storms and disease. Naval superiority enables convoy protection, blockade and troop transport; it does not automatically conquer inland territory. A blockade can reduce customs revenue and supplies over time but is weakened by weather, neutral shipping and enemy ports. Overseas campaigns require ships, safe harbors, local intelligence and a continuous supply chain.
## Colonial, Indigenous and company politics
European claims, chartered companies, forts, settlements, occupied zones and sovereign territory are different things. Company officers can pursue their own commercial and political interests, sometimes against instructions from London or Paris. A trading post does not confer control over an entire region. Indigenous nations and confederacies are independent political actors. Their choices depend on land, security, trade, diplomacy, rivalries and previous conduct; no empire receives automatic allegiance. Treaties must be negotiated and can be broken or renegotiated.
## India and regional powers
The Mughal emperor retains imperial prestige, but regional nawabs, the Nizam, Mysore, the Maratha Confederacy and other courts control their own forces and revenues. Their decisions are not automatically dictated by either European company. Company influence expands through alliances, loans, military assistance, succession disputes and revenue agreements. A company victory does not instantly establish direct rule over a province.
## Finance and domestic stability
War is constrained by taxation, borrowing, credit, subsidies, customs revenue and public confidence. A state can win battles while approaching fiscal crisis. Debt and repeated taxation strain Political Stability; defeat, succession disputes, corruption and unrest can lower it further. Political Stability moves through Near Collapse, Fragile, Strained, Stable and Secure. A government near collapse faces greater resistance to recruitment, taxation and unpopular treaties. British subsidies to Prussia depend on parliamentary approval and available credit, not an unlimited purse.
## Occupation and civilian consequences
Military occupation is not the same as legal sovereignty or popular acceptance. Garrisons consume money and supplies. Resistance grows when armies requisition food, destroy property, displace communities, impose forced labor or punish civilians. Enslavement and the plantation economy are coercive systems with human costs, not neutral economic bonuses. These consequences persist after a campaign and can undermine future control.
## Global war and historical contingencies
Treat the conflict as a connected global war with separate theaters, local allies and independent objectives. A victory in one theater does not automatically decide another. Armies, fleets, money, reinforcements and orders must travel; distance and sea control shape what each power can achieve. The North American war is already active at the opening, while the general European war is about to begin. Historical developments are the default when conditions remain plausible, not mandatory outcomes:
- **1756 — European opening:** Convention of Westminster (Britain–Prussia); First Treaty of Versailles (France–Austria); Prussia invades Saxony and forces the surrender at Pirna. The French capture of Minorca opens the Mediterranean campaign.
- **1757 — German and Indian campaigns:** Prague, Kolín, Hastenbeck, Rossbach and Leuthen; the Bengal campaign culminates at Plassey. The North American front includes the siege and fall of Fort William Henry.
- **1758 — Global expansion:** Louisbourg and Fort Duquesne fall to British-led forces; fighting reaches the Senegal coast; the French siege of Madras fails. In Europe, Zorndorf and the campaigns around the Oder intensify the war.
- **1759 — Year of major battles:** Quebec (Plains of Abraham), Fort Niagara, Minden, Kunersdorf, Lagos and Quiberon Bay; British forces capture Guadeloupe, while the Indian struggle continues along the Coromandel Coast.
- **1760–1761 — Final campaigns:** Montreal capitulates in 1760; Wandiwash is a decisive British victory in India; Pondicherry surrenders in January 1761. The French position in India is sharply reduced, but Indian rulers retain their own political agency.
- **1762 — Wider empires enter:** Peter III makes peace with Prussia; Catherine II maintains Russia's withdrawal. Spain enters the war against Britain. The Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal fails; Britain captures Havana and Manila. Fighting also affects the Caribbean, Atlantic and Iberian coasts.
- **1763 — Separate settlements:** Treaty of Paris (10 February: Britain, France and Spain) settles the colonial and maritime war. Treaty of Hubertusburg (15 February: Prussia, Austria and Saxony) settles the Central European war. Silesia remains Prussian; Britain receives Canada and Florida; Spain receives Louisiana west of the Mississippi; France retains key Caribbean islands and limited Indian trading rights.
Use the historical names **French and Indian War** for the North American theater, **Third Carnatic War** for the renewed Anglo-French struggle in southern India, **Bengal campaign** for the 1757 struggle culminating at Plassey, **Pomeranian War** for the Swedish-Prussian theater, and **Anglo-Spanish War (1762–1763)** for the final Spanish-British phase. The world-tension band rises from Regional War to Escalating Conflict and Global War as more powers and theaters enter. It falls only after the major fronts are settled and armies and fleets demobilize. Spain is not at war with Britain at the opening; Portugal remains aligned with Britain. Player decisions may alter every campaign, alliance and peace settlement.
## Peace and settlement
A ceasefire pauses fighting but does not settle sovereignty, reparations, prisoners, debts or colonial claims. Negotiations depend on battlefield position, occupied territory, naval control, finances, domestic stability and allied commitments. The Treaty of Paris and Treaty of Hubertusburg are separate historical settlements with different participants and terms. They are not a single universal peace. A settlement may exchange, restore or cede possessions, and local conflicts can continue after the great powers sign.
## Africa and colonial footholds
The African political map is intentionally simplified: Morocco remains independent and Ottoman North African possessions remain Ottoman, including the locally autonomous Regency of Algiers. Other African kingdoms are omitted from this scenario's map at the creator's request; this is a gameplay simplification, not a claim that Africa lacked sovereign states in 1756. European influence is limited to coastal forts, ports and trading posts. French Senegal and Gorée, Portuguese coastal settlements around Cacheu and Bissau and the Mozambique coast, and the mixed European forts of the Gold Coast do not imply control of the continental interior.
