Colonial Claptrap Confounds Comprehension

[epaminondas]

I'm utterly flummoxed by the manual's instructions on how to manage Colonial Affairs.

I'm playing Austria with SOI switched off which should, if I'm interpreting things correctly, allow me to play the colonial game unfettered. But apart from sending out various expeditions and merchants and building Mission Schools and Trading Posts, I don't appear able to do a damned thing.

My particular puzzlement at this point is how to establish a Protectorate. I'm looking at Tunisia which on the map appears to comprise Bizerte, Tunisia, Gafsa, and Gabes. I currently have 30+ CP in each of those which, according to the rulebook, should permit me to build a Consulate in the capital - but it don't. No Consulate building has popped up in my Colonial Submode display and the Options and Actions panel of the Ministry of Colonial Affairs display remains as empty as my reservoir of goodwill toward the game.

Something's happening or not happening but I don't know what and the rulebook is profoundly unedifying.

If there's a savant available who can initiate me into the mysteries involved here I'd be ever so grateful.

[Asher413]

I'm sure you'll get more complete answers shortly, but just in case you're "waiting by the phone"- First thing I'd check is the conditions when you select the Protectorate card (and hold shift to see the conditions). The two errors I most commonly make is either A. forget territories I haven't mapped yet that are part of the colony and B. Forget that the capital needs more CP than the rest to initiate.

A couple of other hindrances I've seen- no military control, or someone else controls the capital (like an ally) instead of you.

For the sake of diagnosis- if you could post the CP and who controls which region, that may help the real PON-heads in solving your issue .

Edit: And it's an average CP for the whole colony, so you could in theory have 60-60-0-0 to achieve 30+

[loki100]

Asher413 has given you a lot of good ideas - check that there is no one else with a presence, if it is Tunisia then France will be active as maybe Italy - use the colonial screen to see. Sometimes areas become very fragmented between multiple powers (this has happened in Nigeria in my game) and then no one can make much progress.

Do you have the full range of cards, things like telegraphs, immigrants etc - you really need to get well over 30% if you can and those cards are essential.

Finally, the colonial game is slow and its hard, even with the SOIs off, to make real inroads in a region where one of the AIs is well embedded.

Here, you may want a war, remember that colonies are freely transferable, I'd suggest go and beat up the Ottomans and take Libya instead - your relations with Italy are going to be dire in any case so this will simply make them worse.

[Jim-NC]

Austria may have a limited amount of colonial cards it can play. You should have a card called "declare protectorate", and "declare colony" in your colonial menu - or something similar (they should appear on the far right, you may have to scroll towards the right using the mousewheel, or click in the right arrow above the list of colonial actions). If you are missing those cards, they may appear later (after some technology is discovered, or some event fires), or not at all.

I have never played Austria, and so am unsure which is the case.

[epaminondas]

Many thanks for the insights and the rapid responses. I'm guessing that Jim has nailed it - Austria seems to have damned all colonial cards. Nine only - just enough to fill the panel and ending with Trade Post - so I'm going to have to hope there are more in the wind or take loki's advice and continue my policy by other means.

There are other interested parties in the region, Asher, but I 'outrank' them in every province, with 35 CP in each giving me highest colonial status in all cases. I can't see any reference to military control at all, but since hostilities haven't commenced I'm assuming that's normal.

Sorry to have to lean on you blokes so heavily, but it's a steep learning curve to negotiate without any lucid instructional materials.

[loki100]

Sorry to have to lean on you blokes so heavily, but it's a steep learning curve to negotiate without any lucid instructional materials.

feel free to ask - its an incredibly deep and addictive game but ... . Most of us are still working by trial and error and testing our understanding.

You might want to check out my AAR - its written as a 'how-to' (well in truth it started as a 'how do I') and there is quite a lot in there about the game mechanics and some incredibly useful posts by other commentators who really understand how parts of the game work. You may find the sections on destroying the Austrian army in the Dolomites and Garibaldi partying in Wien a wee bit disturbing but you can always skip those pages

[epaminondas]

Will do! If I can get a handle on how this thing actually works it won't be just Garibaldi who's partying.

[Kensai]

If you have just started with Austria and you are before 1860 you can also install my mod on top (it is pretty compatible with the basic game). This way you can make sure Germany goes your way, not Prussia's.

[epaminondas]

That's an interesting prospect, Kens. I mentioned that I fully intend to run your mod because of the intriguing prospects it conjures; but since I'm just coming up on 1860 now, the idea of getting a running start with it really appeals.

[Jim-NC]

As to the lack of colonial cards, you may get more after some events fire, or may not. If you want some now, that can be modded in. We have done it for other countries in our MP (Kensai did that). So if you want to increase your colonial options, you can just ask.

[epaminondas]

Thanks Jim. I'll play things as they lie for twenty or so game years and see what, if anything, pops up. Then, if the field's still barren I'll take you up on your kind offer.

[Q-Kee]

I asked just the same and loki told me Austria just does not have more colonial cards, so it can never make colonies itself, only by getting them as a war prize, and then you get them at the status they are and cannot be upgraded further (this comes from own experience). Kensai gave me a script today to change this - have not yet tried it.

[Kensai]

Just remember the limits of AGEOD games, especially PON's. If you want a paint-the-map-my-color experience, you will better enjoy Victoria 2.

AGEOD games shine mostly on "historical reenactment". You play a country trying to follow its historical path and influence things here and there. But the game, at least with its original events which sometime lack strict conditions, cannot always cope with gross changes in the historical flow.

I am not patronizing you, feel free to play as you wish, I am simply giving hints on how to enjoy it the most! Austria's challenge in the late 19th century is the fight to keep its crumbling empire from nationalistic dangers both inside (Hungarians, Czechs, etc) and outside (Italy). The most fun you can get out of Austria is as a Germanic policeman (assuming that you allow Germany to form under Prussia or unite it yourself with my mod), fighting wars of fortune against the Italians, Ottomans, Russians, and others. Up until the early 20th century where the Balkan crises and the Great War come knocking on your door.

The colonial game is an important aspect of the game, but definitely not the only. Austria could reach the end stages without caring about colonies and then be with the winners of the Great War and gain some "readily developed" colonies from them as war reparations. It is balanced to win with Prestige without having colonies (which normally give it negative SOI anyway). No needs to worry.

[epaminondas]

Austria could reach the end stages without caring about colonies and then be with the winners of the Great War and gain some "readily developed" colonies from them as war reparations. It is balanced to win with Prestige without having colonies (which normally give it negative SOI anyway).

That's my current plan - and you're absolutely right, playing that kind of grand strataegy makes for a very different game altogether. Right now I'm several years into a couple of 'wars without end' in Africa just to thwart French expansion there. I'm also playing your mod in parallel, Kens, and it seems to be doing just what it's meant to. Making the mental shift from one approach to the other, though, is right doing my head in.