The Virgin Queen - first session

During confinement, a locked wargamer needs his methadone: Vassal. We are five confined players who have decided to start a game of Virgin Queen. The game is designed for six but can be played by five, unlike Here I Stand. In this configuration, the Holy Empire is a neutral country that can be influenced by diplomacy. Its central position makes it the target of greedy bids.

The players are all multiplayers games vets.The most novice is given England, an easy country to play. After five minutes of negotiation to choose the sides, we start the game via Discord/Vassal.

The Ottoman launches a maritime offensive in the Mediterranean. He manages to plunder the Sicilian coast but is beaten badly in a meeting with the Spanish fleet (the dice were Christian that day). The sultan then withdrew to Constantinople where he brooded over his defeat by sponsoring artists. Alas, there too, little success.

In addition to his Mediterranean problems, the Spaniard was heavily pirated in the West Indies by Hawkins and Testu. The flota de oro expected at the end of the period appears in the middle of the turn and is again pirated by Hawkins who returns to London loaded with treasures (the English compensates for his lack of knowledge of the game by an insolent luck with an average of 5.5 on the dice ...).

The Franco-English war remains of low intensity. A naval battle in the English Channel ends in a draw with a ship sunk everywhere. This will end the warlike intentions of both sides. Peace will be signed at the end of the round.

The Protestant negotiate an agreement with the French to take La Rochelle and in exchange has to focus on Holland. For good measure, the French ally themselves with Spain to allow it to transit its troops to subdue the rebels. The revolt starts in Amsterdam and spreads to the coastal ports.

A French attempt to get the pope on his side failed and it was Spain that directed the papal wrath ... on Elizabeth I who was excommunicated.

At the end of the tour, the royal marriage between Philip II and Isabella de Valois is resolved. A lot of money was spent to prepare the couple for the wedding. In spite of the Victoria's Secret budget which exceeded that of the army for this turn, the wedding night was a bitter failure. The two spouses do not agree and live a union without an agreement. The Virgin Queen remains so, despite a promise made to William of Orange.


In the second round, the diplomats criss-cross Europe. Peace was therefore signed between France and England. Spain starts refusing to finance France  in exchange for a renewal of the alliance. But when she realized that an agreement could be reached between Huguenot and Paris, she ended up paying a tribute of good grace.

The Turkish and Spanish made peace and it seems that a verbal agreement was reached between them concerning the Ottoman conquest of Venice.

This agreement lasts about two minutes because when the Sublime Porte declares war on the Serenissima, the Spaniard agrees to come to her aid. To the great displeasure of the Turkish, who lost himself in imprecations against these unbelievers of wordless Christians. Reinforced by the Venetian fleet, the Spanish armada will be able to repulse the turkish offensive.

The sultan then starts on an impressive construction programme. Madrid makes the mistake of not concentrating its forces and ends up losing its Spanish fleet in Messina (this time the dice were Muslim). Dragut and Piyale Pasha escort Mehmed who conquers Malta.

Meanwhile, the Englishman continues his programme that has been successful so far: he plunders the Caribbean and finances the scientist Dee who has already offered him a discovery the previous round. Cunningly, he saves cards for the next round.

This is not the case for the Frenchman who has to spend everything to contain the Huguenot, who plays conversion then rebellion. Fortunately, the Governor of France manages to calm these riots and at the end of the round only La Rochelle remains in the hands of the rebels.

In Holland the Catholics were concentrated in Brussels and Antwerp. The Protestants were unable to break through, as the dice did not turn out to be Calvinist this round.

The news from the royal weddings are disappointing as ever. The marriage of Charles IX and Mary of Scotland is a failure. In retaliation, the queen orders the destruction of all the lingerie shops in the kingdom (considered non-essential).

Overseas, Villegagnon founds a colony in America while Testu begins a world tour.

In the arts and letters, Ronsard writes a world best-seller: Don Quixote.

At the end of the tour, news comes to trouble the chancelleries: the Holy Empire has decided to ally itself with Spain. The Habsburgs are reunited again.