Okay guys, I am working on typing up a the thread.

This could take a while - it's a very long thread, so you can expect to see some first action on the Refuge in 1/2 an hour to 45 minutes.

Here are some fairly general changes that have been pushed through:

NOTE: These are not the only changes - there will be others. All changes, both the ones featured here and the others, will be described in much greater detail on the Refuge:

- We will be following the Avatar Cycle as for turns.

- Each Nation will have nine positions - one ruler, a chief lieutenant, and 7 followers. The Ruler and his/her lieutenant are in control of the troops, but can assign a number of troops to a follower if that follower wants to make a move of their own.

- Each Nation will start off with 16,000 soldiers.

- The command portioning is such: The leader will always be in direct control of 50% of the soldiers (at the start then, 8000), with the rest shared out amongst the followers in as even a manner as possible. Note that this is not permanent: after the game has started, the varied commands can be adjusted as the leader sees fit.

- The way new soldiers are recruited has also changed: At the end of each turn cycle (so after all four nations have made their moves), there will be a brief interlude as each team seeks new recruits. Nations who during their turn won a battle against another nation will be able to use that victory as propeganda, and so will recieve more troops than nations who have not won a battle. nations who have won a battle that gained them new land (eg: they invaded another nation and took over part of it), will also be able to use captured loot to offer rewards to their soldiers in addition to the propeganda, and as such will recieve the most recruits of all (note - it has to be territory taken from somebody else - re-capturing land that was taken from you previously does not count. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if a nation loses a battle in it's turn, then it's citizens will become disheartened, and the nation will recieve fewer recruits. If a nation not only loses the battle, but also loses part of it's homeland territory, then in addition to the disheartenment of the people, it is assumed that there will be fewer people to recruit from, and so there will be far fewer recruits than normal. In a basic summary of this system:

Battle won, new territory gained = Much more recruits than normal.

Battle won, no new territory gained = More recruits than normal.

No battles / battles that were a draw/stalemate = Normal amount of recruits.

Battle lost, no homeland territory lost = Fewer recruits than normal.

Battle lost, homeland territory lost = Far fewer recruits than normal.

This new system is designed to encourage people to be far more agressive than they were in the last game - attacking people doesn't cost you troops - if you win you gain troops.

- New technolgies and types of soldiers are allowed to be invented, but they have to consist of things seen in the show - no completely new ideas. You can combine old ideas in new, interesting ways (for example, the earth Kingdom could theoretically mount soldiers on Badger Moles, and the Fire Nation could theoretically use the cannons from TSR on it's warships), but you can't make up something completely new. Alos important - the measure that we're going to be using for whether something is "god-modded", is whether such a thing could have occured in the show. So no flying sandbenders.

- Nations in search of technology do not necessarily have to invent it themselves - it is allowed for Nations to trade technology with eachother, for certain favors. For example, the leader of the Fire Nation might agree to trade Tank Technology with the water Tribe in return for Submarine Technology. In another scenario, if the Fire Nation invaded the Air Nomad territory, the Air Nomads could offer glider technology in return for the Fire nation leaving them alone. In another scenario, the Fire Nation could offer drill technology to the Water Tribes, and in return, the Water Tribes would have to attack the earth Kingdom. It is important to note that these agreements are binding - if the Water Tribe took the Fire Nation's technology, it would be obligated to uphold it's agreement and attack the EK. After the agreement had been fulfilled, it could do whatever it wanted.

- A note on Diplomacy: basically, the rule here is simple - whatever you post in the actual thread is binding. As such, all forms of alliance and promises that are made here must be upheld. Things said in pms do not count. As an example, if the leader of the Fire Nation sent a pm to the leader of the Water Tribes suggesting that they attack the Air Nomads together, it would mean nothing - it woudd not become concrete until both of them had posted their intentions in the thread. On the subject of this obvious reference to the last effectual move of the old game; I cannot stress enough: THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO CAN MOVE A NATIONS SOLDIERS ARE THE PLAYERS FROM THAT NATION. So to continue with the example above, even if the leader of the Fire Nation had made clear tha he/she wanted to attack the AN with the help of the WT, nothing would happen until he/she had made a post on the thread saying that the FN troops would be making said move. So basically, pms have no effective standing on the game. There is only one exception in this: pms to Foxhole7 - those are binding. Hope that clears things up.

- Battles have a few new features added:

Once two forces (or more, potentially) come into contact with eachother, the battle starts. The attacker makes a post in which he/she describes the strategies and tactics they will be using, and points out any factors that they think will alter the battle in their favor (eg; their soldiers are veterans, or are attacking down a hill). Once they have done so, it is expected that everyone stop posting until the Avatar arrives and decides what the outcome of the battle is.

A few things to note about this:

• The defender is not allowed to make a post of their own describing strategies or factors. At the end of each turn, a player must post a list of the strategies that their armies will be using if they are attacked - those are what is used for the defender.
• These will not be fights to the death. It is assumed that once it is clear that one side will lose, the general of that army orders a retreat. this means that a defeated army is unlikely to lose more than 1/4 of it's men - perhaps 1/2 in a truly extreme battle. The average loss for the victorious army will probably be about 10% (a rough estimate). The exception to this rule is sieges - an army defending a city/fortress will have no way to run away and will probably be wiped out (unless they surrender).
• Surrender is an option in this game - if a player (the defender) feels their army is sure to lose, they can surrender. If this happens, then they place themselves at the mercy of their conqueror. If he/she wants, the victor can choose to ignore the surrender and wipe them out completely, sustaining no losses in doing. However, if they choose to do this, their people will be disgusted at this dishonorable behavior, and as a result the recruitment bonus they would normally have gotten for a victory is cancelled - the victor recieves only an ordinary amount of soldiers at the next recruitment interval. Since this means the enemy loose a large proportion of soldiers though, this can still be a viable tactic. If on the other hand, the victor chooses to act honorably, then the prisoners are allowed to return to their nation, which loses no troops. As a reward for their honorable behavior however, the victor will recieve a monumental bonus at the next recruitment interval.

All of these things will be expanded on in the new thread, along with other rules.