Why does anchorage not build?

[Peever]

Playing the 1880 scenario and and I cannot get any kind of anchorage or coaling station built in Lome. Playing as German I declared war on the Dahomey tribe and took their capital city and coastal province. But for some reason when I try and build an anchorage it always disappears the next turn. I have military units in the province and the Dahomey have no units so they are not attacking it. Also the "blockade" symbol shows up when trying to build the anchorage despite the fact the Dahomey have no ships, forts, or units that they could even use to blockade (and no I'm not at war with anyone else). Anyone have an idea of how to resolve this situation?

[HerrDan]

Playing the 1880 scenario and and I cannot get any kind of anchorage or coaling station built in Lome. Playing as German I declared war on the Dahomey tribe and took their capital city and coastal province. But for some reason when I try and build an anchorage it always disappears the next turn. I have military units in the province and the Dahomey have no units so they are not attacking it. Also the "blockade" symbol shows up when trying to build the anchorage despite the fact the Dahomey have no ships, forts, or units that they could even use to blockade (and no I'm not at war with anyone else). Anyone have an idea of how to resolve this situation?

You mean you can't build the anchorade? It's always better to wait for the colonial events than declaring war on the african countries in any case, you could get it easily without a war, I think you can't build it in "enemy" territory. Try to make peace with them and start playing the colonial decisions until you reach a reasonable CP and build the anchorage there. If you have any other doubt, just ask here.

Cheers.

[epaminondas]

I don't think it can be a war v. peace issue. In my present game I'm at war with Tunisia (and have been for a number of years) but I've been able to build an anchorage in Tunis. I haven't been able to improve that structure beyond a coaling station however, so it seems there's some sort of inhibition applying.

[loki100]

You mean you can't build the anchorade? It's always better to wait for the colonial events than declaring war on the african countries in any case, you could get it easily without a war, I think you can't build it in "enemy" territory. Try to make peace with them and start playing the colonial decisions until you reach a reasonable CP and build the anchorage there. If you have any other doubt, just ask here.

Cheers.

From what he's said he can start to build but then it disappears.

This can happen in a province where you only have a marginal control (either colonial penetration or military control), so you just meet the initial build conditions and then next turn things decay enough to force removal of the structure. Look at CP and MC for the turn in which you place and then the turn later - I'd suspect that is the reason.

Also in colonial warfare, be careful that just because you cannot see an enemy unit does not mean they are not there. You need light infantry, cavalry and preferably colonial/native troops to push your detection value to the stage where you may even be able to see the enemy unit, never mind actually find them well enough to engage with them.

I don't think it can be a war v. peace issue. In my present game I'm at war with Tunisia (and have been for a number of years) but I've been able to build an anchorage in Tunis. I haven't been able to improve that structure beyond a coaling station however, so it seems there's some sort of inhibition applying.

Different structures and levels call for different amounts of military and colonial control, worth having a look in the structures files to see if this is what is causing the constraint, but harbours do demand a relatively high degree of control if I remember correctly

[epaminondas]

Different structures and levels call for different amounts of military and colonial control, worth having a look in the structures files to see if this is what is causing the constraint, but harbours do demand a relatively high degree of control if I remember correctly

I have 100% MC and 35% CP (which appears to be the most I can get with Austria's card set) so it might well be a CP effect. Thanks for the insight.

[Peever]

You were right Loki, they were hiding in the trees the whole time. I made peace with them and and soon as they accepted a unit appears in Lome next to my troops. I had left my marine brigade in Lome while the light infantry went north. Explains why I couldn't see them.

[HerrDan]

You were right Loki, they were hiding in the trees the whole time. I made peace with them and and soon as they accepted a unit appears in Lome next to my troops. I had left my marine brigade in Lome while the light infantry went north. Explains why I couldn't see them.

Yeah this happens pretty often in Africa, that's why you need colonial troops there and not regulars so that you can detect these hiden units. Glad you could solve it. Asa matter of fact I was giving you a good advice, most of the time it's not worth to declare war on the natives.

Cheers.

[Peever]

Yeah I was still a little unsure on how the colonization aspect fully worked. I'm so used to other strategy games where you need to "declare" war to take over and use other nation's territory like in Civilization. Now that I've gone back and read the manual and understand how the CP% works and how to use to colonization cards I see what you mean by not needing to declare war on the natives to build up colonies.

[HerrDan]

Yeah I was still a little unsure on how the colonization aspect fully worked. I'm so used to other strategy games where you need to "declare" war to take over and use other nation's territory like in Civilization. Now that I've gone back and read the manual and understand how the CP% works and how to use to colonization cards I see what you mean by not needing to declare war on the natives to build up colonies.

I'm very glad you're enjoying the game so far and learning new aspects of it, whenever you need help just ask.

Cheers.

[loki100]

Yeah I was still a little unsure on how the colonization aspect fully worked. I'm so used to other strategy games where you need to "declare" war to take over and use other nation's territory like in Civilization. Now that I've gone back and read the manual and understand how the CP% works and how to use to colonization cards I see what you mean by not needing to declare war on the natives to build up colonies.

the other trick is to keep an eye on their relations with you. If these are >0, they are unlikely to rebel and any rebel stacks are more likely to stand down. If its <0, you can end up trapped into a number of long hard to win campaigns. Be prepared to lose a number of diplomats to 'promise support' or you will find your colonial activity becomes very limited as a result

[Tom]

Different structures and levels call for different amounts of military and colonial control, worth having a look in the structures files to see if this is what is causing the constraint, but harbours do demand a relatively high degree of control if I remember correctly

I have 100% MC and 35% CP (which appears to be the most I can get with Austria's card set) so it might well be a CP effect. Thanks for the insight.

Any tips on getting above 35% CP with Austria? There are several cards (I copied over a Prussia event which grants Austria pretty much the full set of cards as far as I know), but I face 2 problems:
1) None or almost none of the cards can be played now that I am at 35% CP. (They say max CP to be gained from them is 30 or 35%.)
2) When I send Exploration and Prospecting parties to known and unknown provinces, they always come back "unsuccessful" on the next turn.

Is there something I'm missing? Do I need to send an army to gain military control?

Thanks for any help.

[loki100]

not sure over #1, it can sometimes be a bit odd what you can play where but if you've taken the Prussian 1880s colonial event then yes you have a decent range of options. Off the top of my head, schools are a good one for getting CP>35 but it may have a MC criteria so dumping a brigade in the region will do no harm.

#2 sounds ok, they are both hit and miss cards at the best of times and not every region has stuff you can prospect. I've sometimes had to send the explorers 5 or 6 times to finally get the region to show up.

[jccoluz]

Hi,

I think I can help you.

You only have a few options to go over 35% CP and they may require different conditions before being playable ( "School" is not one of those since it requires you to have already 45% CP !)

1- "Military Outpost" : will increase CP by 5% but requires MC. Besides, it will decrease opponents CP by 5% when built so it's best to not build them too early.

2- "Military Exp. Pacify": Increases CP by 2% up to 50% but you need some units in the region. It will not succeed everytime so you might be obliged to play it several times before it takes effect. Repeatable !

3- "Road Network" : Can only be played in areas where the transport level is less than "roads" otherwise unplayable !! Increases CP by 3% up to 95% (But can only be played once since you'll get roads after the first time ). You must own the region.

4-"Improve Telegraph network" : Can only be played in areas where the transport level is at least "roads" and whose dev level is > 20 . Increases CP by 4% up to 100%. You can repeat this action as much as you like in a region you own !

5- "Immigrants " : You must own the region and have at least 15% loyalty. Increases CP by 4%

6- "Declare Protectorate" : If you can get every province of a colonial area to 35% (or 35% average) then you can declare a protectorate by playing this action in the regional capital. This will increases CP by 5% and you'll then own the whole area so you'll be able to play options 3, 4 and 5 above in the whole area !

However, it's sometimes best to wait before increasing CP over 35% : Loyalty is very difficult to increase and the best options for this ( "Chief Bribing" and "Chief Treaty" both increase loyalty by 5% each time ) can no longer be played if CP is over 35%. I advise you to stay at 35% for a while and play these several times before moving further.

Finally, Loki is right about the explorers and the prospectors : It takes a lot of attempts to get some result. I don't really know if it depends on development or other hidden variable but prospecting in the jungle of Papua New Guinea was extremely diificult for me. I made at least 20 tries in some areas before uncovering anything !

Bye,

JC

[Citizen X]

What JC said.
Also, some explorer cards go with an officer in an adjacent region, too.

[Tom]

OK thank you all.

Yes - some of the explore failed several times before working. Prospecting - I think I've tried it around 30 times and not sure if it has succeeded once.

I think I did mess some up by not going for the loyalty before crossing 35CP since that was what I focused on first. But in most cases I've been able to get up to Protectorate status. (Just seems mostly random which I can play where haha.)

It also was interesting to see a colony drop down to Protectorate status. My CP & loyalty are not really dropping. Not sure if it's the French building up some CP/loyalty, or if it's the native rebellion. Either way, as Protectorate I can still pretty much run as a colony, it seems.

Another annoyance was I made a mutual passage treaty with the US, and American explorers and troops ended up in my African colonial areas! They took some military control, so I am having a hard time getting it back, even after breaking the passage treaty. Since we aren't at war, my troops won't take control even though the Americans left.