Wargamer article

[loki100]

If anyone is interested, The Wargamer has a review/short AAR on Pride of Nations. its based around the Anglo-Italian war from my current AAR - Manufacturing Italy.

Hope it convinces a few more people to pick up (or return to) this wonderfully deep and rather obsessive game.

[Kensai]

Congratulations, loki100, well deserved!

I am planning to start two mods for PON soon: one for Realism, based on the lessons learned in the PBEM, and one for an Austrian alternative history path regarding the Austrian-Prussia rivalry which is well covered in the early parts of the grand campaign. More info soon. There is indeed so much good stuff in Pride of Nations and so much experimentation can be done by the players themselves, this is a must-have title for every AGEOD-title lover!

[Stuyvesant]

Read the article. Good overview, but I will confess to finding the tone a bit dry compared to your AAR. I know, I know, different audiences and all that, but there was a disturbing lack of shelling wildlife and accidents with matches.

[loki100]

Read the article. Good overview, but I will confess to finding the tone a bit dry compared to your AAR. I know, I know, different audiences and all that, but there was a disturbing lack of shelling wildlife and accidents with matches.

aye, I know, I was trying to interest them in 'Garibaldi's guide to religiously important buildings I have shelled and wildlife I have conserved (by having them stuffed)' but there you are ... editors heh. Or the Italian diplomatic corps guide to how to act like screaming drama queens at international conferences and the appropriate use of the paint brush in creating a casus belli.

[Pocus]

I posted a question at the wargamer, but here it will perfectly do too

I'm quite impressed by your performance, how you managed to beat in power the others nations, in a nutshell? Italy is not that powerful, at start at least.

[loki100]

I posted a question at the wargamer, but here it will perfectly do too

I'm quite impressed by your performance, how you managed to beat in power the others nations, in a nutshell? Italy is not that powerful, at start at least.

At its simplest, Industry. You have to be cautious not to overdo it and keep a close eye on global shortage goods - usually coal but at times manufactures and chemicals. As a trade policy, as everyone says don't do mercantalist and I think that has paid off as I'm running a balance of payments at +2000 so I can sell excess production.

Beyond that, Italy has a surprisingly large manpower pool post-unification which helps generate a large(ish) army.

In terms of options, I'd recommend anyone to go for the Ottomans first. Its not that you gain that much of real value but its relatively easy prestige, trains up the army and so on. Try to be ready for a moment when Austria is isolated - in my game this happened when Prussia and Britain were at war. Attack when they are on there own. They outnumber you but you can use the terrain, I fought a six month defensive battle in the Dolomites, which wore them down enough to allow combat in the open - by then from the Ottoman wars, I had much better troops and commanders.

My war with Britain was simply to make sure they lost prestige and industrial base.

But I am now gaining around 400 prestige a turn and 340 or so is coming from industry. So it has to be that as the core to any strategy with a secondary power.