The Special Envoy is a partisan office. The President may only appoint one member of the opposing party to the partisan offices (State, Treasury, War, Envoy). Washington is a conservative, so only one liberal on the team.
Also, in case it isn’t clear, the Secretary of War doesn’t actually need military skill, as it is an administrative position. The General, on the other hand, does need military skill.
I appreciate the tremendous confidence in Hamilton, but my advice and my vote will be for peace.
Right you are and thanks for clarifying that as I got them confused.
Hear, Hear! First balance the books. Then worry about Britain. We just fought a war, and are deeply in debt.
Such cowardly words from some formerly highly regarded statesmen who would rather bend the knee after just winning our freedom than stand up to British tyranny, just to save a few dollars. Oh the shame!
So the Influence points to be spent can come from either the faction pool or the individual statesmen, correct?
@Ironsight it seems a poor way to start by losing chunks of our new country.
I’m pretty sure any needed influence comes from the faction of the appropriate office holder, the office holder himself if he has any, or the President if he has any on his character card and is willing to spend it. I don’t think it can come from another member of the office holders faction who has his own personal influence on his card but I’m not positive about that.
Edit - Not sure if it can come from another player other than the President, but since deals can be made to exchange influence then I guess it could.
Players may find the Influence & Expenditure Chart helpful: http://upandawaygames.com/FoundingFathers/influence.expend.html
A question for our game designer in residence @spotlightgames: On page 6 of the rules when resolving the Create National Bank issue can Hamilton’s faction provide the needed 1 influence point or must it be on Hamilton’s card?
After looking at the chart you just linked it looks like the answer is Yes since the Faction choice under “Transfer to currently responsible officer” says Yes. However “Solve own issue” says No for Faction so I’m confused.
The answer is Yes. The Faction cannot solve an Issue; only a Statesman can. The Faction can transfer Influence to a Statesman, but Statesmen do not transfer Influence to a Faction. Hope this helps.
Yup, thanks.
@spotlightgames, have you ever considered having someone put together a VASSAL module for this game? I’d be willing to give it a shot, if you think it would be worthwhile.
Thanks, yes, in theory, but we are kind of worn out on the idea. So many folks have asked this question but what always happens is that w e go to quite a bit of trouble to provide them all the necessary images, they make a start of it, but then give up in the middle and so it never happens. This sequence has repeated several times with different folks. I don’t know VASSAL at all, but it seems like either there is some basic incompatibility with it or the project is just too big, or both, for it to happen.
Meanwhile we have been experimenting with Tabletop Simulator, though nothing to show as yet. Do you happen to know that system? And if you do, what do you think of the possibility?
I honestly think you’ve been dealing with the wrong people, unfortunately. If Vietnam 1965-1975 by Victory Games or Empires in Arms by AH/ADG (though, not well…) can be done in Vassal, then this absolutely shouldn’t be an issue.
No real knowledge of TTS, sadly. I don’t like it as a player, because I am fundamentally an old person, and I like my games 2D.
Thanks, it could be. Some differences that this game might have from the typical war game
I know that all of this can be done in VASSAL, though I admit I am not super experienced in VASSAL design.
Absolutely. Rick, I sent you a pm offline, if you want any help.
By the way, that was an excellent disquisition on the current Issue, CF_Kane. There is little I could add except to say that historically this did occur in the Washington administration and he chose the Negotiation option, appointing John Jay the Special Envoy, even though he was serving as Chief Justice at the time. Bet we’d hear some howls of protest in the press and elsewhere if that happened today, eh? Person serving in two branches simultaneously and all that. But those were different times.
The US negotiating position was given away by the pro-British Hamilton and so the US didn’t get as good a deal as it otherwise could have. I suppose this is not mentioned in Hamilton’s musical. There were howls of protest and it was one of the main triggers for the start of Jefferson’s party of opposition. Jay wrote that he was being burned in effigy up and down the coast. Despite having been a great Statesman during the Revolutionary War, he resigned both posts and never recovered his political career.
Washington himself was quite annoyed over the whole thing, especially the comments in the press, a prominent one being Ben Franklin’s grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache. This probably hastened Washington’s determination not to serve another term. As this occurred in his second term, it set the two-term precedent. Had it occurred in his first term, you wonder if he would have gone on to or even been able to go on to a second term.
Regarding the president’s options, it’s worth noting that the President can also give an office holder Influence for the purposes of solving an Issue.
It is also possible for the president to punt one issue per term over to the vice president.
Finally, even though the president has drawn this Issue card, he can still defer handling it in favor of raising taxes and tariffs, making appointments, etc.
Thanks for the comments and context!