Lords of the Earth

Lords of the Earth is a play-by-email strategy game, first developed by Thomas Harlan in 1983 to entertain and confound his friends. Most LOTE campaigns (and there are many) are set on Earth and in a historical context, or scenario.

In all of the campaigns, players control nations, religious orders or primacies, merchant houses or secret societies struggling to survive, expand and overthrow their enemies. Play is handled in turns, where the players submit orders to the game master, then recieve results in the form of a newsfax (newsletter) and a stat sheet (which describes their position after the results of the turn).

The official game site