Manufacturing Italy (a PoN GC)

[Jim-NC]

The only way Loki has of slowing down the Americans is to win a crisis against them. Even then, as Italy has the bigger starting pot, it will have to offer more, and win bigger. Unfortunately, a crisis doesn't just come along every year, and if it did, there is the chance that events could spiral out of control, and war could be declared between Italy and the USA. That would be a severe blow to Loki's dreams of world dominion (as they would probably capture/destroy all of his coal mines/other farms/mines).

[Heeward]

The only way Loki has of slowing down the Americans is to win a crisis against them. Even then, as Italy has the bigger starting pot, it will have to offer more, and win bigger. Unfortunately, a crisis doesn't just come along every year, and if it did, there is the chance that events could spiral out of control, and war could be declared between Italy and the USA. That would be a severe blow to Loki's dreams of world dominion (as they would probably capture/destroy all of his coal mines/other farms/mines).

Is this really a bad thing? Given the large amount of private capitol he has, is it possible to replace those coal mines in the USA elsewhere? Prussia / Russia initially come to mind. He would have to prepare by buying all the supplies / ammunition on the open market.

Or is it a (permanent?) war with Russia / Prussia to grab and hold their industry in protective custody?

[Stuyvesant]

Exciting happenings are afoot! Shame about the American diplomatic coup, I fully understand your sense of aggrievement about that (I wonder if the US diplomats have been taking notes and have adopted the Italian style of diplomatics - acting like divas and throwing hissy fits).

Good to see tanks making an appearance. And what a lovely specimen that German example is: it looks like it could cover 200 yards without breaking down!

The fuse's been lit, the ever-helpful Balkans are helping things along... I think we'll enjoy the grand finale of this AAR in 2014. Enjoy the family and the booze and we'll see you next year!

[Director]

My apologies for being out of the loop - life and work and all that raised their nasty heads.

Looks like to me the British reaped the bitter fruits of their Italian Smackdown - they made serious threats, were not believed and then decided they did not have the military power and political resolve to carry through. Once would be a disaster, twice is catastrophe. In 'our' history the exposure of British military weakness came in the Boer War but no-one questioned their overwhelming naval power. Here it seems the world has recognized they have neither... and Britain has realized it, too. It is a cardinal mistake to bluff if you have no cards and cannot afford to lose.

Sorry to see the Americans vacuuming up the prestige pile but that is pretty much expected. When you have a continent full of raw materials, higher population growth than anyone else, and keep up the industrial growth for a century and a half, superpower sorts-of-things happen. Might have been better for you if Britain had actually taken the US to the mat, but realistically (logistically) fighting the US on their home ground is pretty much a lost cause (and the AI isn't smart enough to tempt them overseas and cut them off).

Coal, coal, coal. Don't suppose China would be of any help, and buying from the US is evidently not enough. I don't remember coal shortages being a problem in 'real' history, so I have little advice to offer here.

If the Great War is about to kick off then I hope the Brits stay weak and the Americans come in on your side. And remember: naval power is a massive force multiplier in that it denies the easiest and most efficient form of transport. Your costly fleet has proven its worth already. It can't stop the enemy from coming overland, but it can keep him from coming any other way. Of course you know this, or you wouldn't have built the ships.

I've really enjoyed your AAR and will close by wishing you a very Happy New Year.

[loki100]

I noticed same thing - not upgrading ships like armies is WAD I guess

still, I wish we could upgrade ships like we upgrade factories (basically, simulates keeping the crew, some secondary eqyuipment, and scratching the main things, from qeel to big gubns), perhaps it would be more manageable by AI and engine, and would get rid of the penalty (albeit sluight) of scrapping ships

and yes, none of us EVER saw AI build a single ship - AI parameters are not presently set not only to upgrade ships, but also to build some (the only one built are by events - ditto for railroad - I suspect this to be a bit complex for AI or threat eavaluation discard the naval factor - I scripted event for Japanese build up, one about German/British naval race is due soon, and I guess Loki ones must be fine too (perhaps i'd win time taking technical buildings from him and scripting the diplomatic/political conditions around)

You can upgrade the wooden ships as that sequence seemed to be about adding better protection to the eseentially wooden hulls. My understanding is that it is near impossible (Director will no doubt correct me here) to alter the core structure of an iron/steel ship. You can, as with some early aircraft carriers, essentially strip everything above the deck off and put in a new configuration but that seems to be it.

I like the dynamic. You face a real dilemna about how much to invest in each generation of ships and its tempting to keep the older stuff floating around in fleets guarding remote corners of the Empire.

I don't think the AI is being daft about not building steel ships. I've had to carefully manage my entire economy to generate the resources (esp steel and manufactures), so the problem is partly how much priority but also capacity to build. I fear the in-game solution is a review of the entire production/economic management AI or to script in some naval builds at key steps.

how the hell did Boers take something in Americas ? they built a fleet ????

or peace settlement I guess (must have missed many episodes)

and how the hell did British let the hook from them, even when I (Russian) was in Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Innsbruck and with 95% of their army dead, Austria wouldn't let the hook of Serbs, you forced peace by event ?

Italians came, smashed Britain to small bloody bits and then the Boers attacked. Great Britain succeeded in a great diplomatic shenanigan by giving them a chunk of south America whilst keeping most of South Africa. Why did the Boers accept? Probably because they wanted to experiment the thrill of having an overseas territory while at the same time discovering the wonders of jungle and humidity.

Matnjord is right. I destroyed about 90% of Britain's African armies and the bit I missed was wondering around the wilds of West Africa. The Boer War kicked off by event but since GB had no ships (as above) it couldn't really respond. I guess handing the Boers the mosquito ridden colony of Belize can be seen as indicating that Victoria really did have a sense of humour?

LOL
thanks

guess it's high time to teach AI not to take / demand territories their real world counterpart had and may not have the slightest interest in

ditto for offering them, was one of my main Paradox games grievances (Britain offering slices of ..Ireland to ...Russia in a losing 7 years war for a separate peace, or Austria offering Tirol and Illyria to napoleon III trying to help risorgimento (they must have mistaken for his uncle (N the 1st), who was interested, but was a bigger Empire then) in Victoria

when I see Ottoman offering Palestine to Russia for a peace (Monk quarrel was about right of supervision about religious and civil matters by Russia, not ownership of Palestina, which did not interest russians - too far, not contiguous) or France offering Prussia la Reunion alone or with only ONE of Alasace and Lorraine, without the other, I tell myself there remains some adjustments to make to AI tests (Loki, make a remainder for discussing future AI improvements with team, you're in with me there ) and we're not done with it

In general I've seen far less silly deals in PoN than in any version of Victoria. Problem is that colonies are often cheap and are freely transferable. When I was at war with GB they kept on offering me good stuff but not what I wanted (not least I wanted to really beat them), so its not a surprise the AI looks at the offer vs warscore vs some judgement of the situation and took the first chance.

I guess its all part of trying to improve the diplo AI but at least in PoN this only affects the North Pole and colonies. Its really part of that wider task to try and make the diplo AI more sensible and more structured in its actions.

The only way Loki has of slowing down the Americans is to win a crisis against them. Even then, as Italy has the bigger starting pot, it will have to offer more, and win bigger. Unfortunately, a crisis doesn't just come along every year, and if it did, there is the chance that events could spiral out of control, and war could be declared between Italy and the USA. That would be a severe blow to Loki's dreams of world dominion (as they would probably capture/destroy all of his coal mines/other farms/mines).

At the moment I have about 50% more prestige than the US, so in a crisis prestige would go into the pot at a ratio of 3:2. That means I need to win at least 60% of the final pot to come out even. Given how dependent I am on US raw materials, there is no way could I risk a crisis wrecking relations (I'm around 50 with the Americans at the moment and if it goes below 25 they might start taking my mines etc) or even worse a war. It doesn't matter if I won or lost, or the thing just fizzled out (most likely) I am pulling in about 500 coal per turn from my US mines (out of around 800 of production under my control). Add on the wood, tobacco and oil and it is a huge dent.

So I'm stuck with the current situation, but as in the next post, it looks like I've managed to build enough over there to stem their expansion, so the industrial stalemate is quite a good outcome.

Is this really a bad thing? Given the large amount of private capitol he has, is it possible to replace those coal mines in the USA elsewhere? Prussia / Russia initially come to mind. He would have to prepare by buying all the supplies / ammunition on the open market.

Or is it a (permanent?) war with Russia / Prussia to grab and hold their industry in protective custody?

The real problem is what is available for trade. Coal is only available from the Low Countries and Germany and I think I buy in about 150 per turn. I pay the premium and have a large merchant fleet (as well as being good chums with the Belgians) so there is nothing more I can do. I put a lot of effort in 1911 to redesigning my industry and my coal usage so as to maximise production of key goods and prestige.

As you say, I'm awash in PC and to manage my own economy anything I can buy I do so (to save coal) but the loss of those US resources would be crippling.

My hope is that in the upcoming crisis I can indeed occupy some key industrial regions in Austria. In the last wars that gave me a huge short term boost of key items and funded my first steel navy using the 1880 techs (must remember to thank the Austrians for that. But long term occupation is not easy as the game engine spawns a lot of rebellions (in the instance of the Ottomans this makes holding provinces long enough to run up warscore very hard).

What I might do is to re-engineer the German economy in the same way as I did to Britain. On my way out I blew up everything that was easy to buy or where I had adequate supplies but left things like the coal mines intact – my hope was that they would then sell their new surplus and I think this worked for a while.

Exciting happenings are afoot! Shame about the American diplomatic coup, I fully understand your sense of aggrievement about that (I wonder if the US diplomats have been taking notes and have adopted the Italian style of diplomatics - acting like divas and throwing hissy fits).

Anyway, poor poor little Britain, humiliated by what was a former colonial offspring AND by a royal offspring, the grand nephew of their greatest queen. Have children they said, it will be fun they said, even rewarding they said...

Yep there was a bit of thinking that 'I'm the only power that goes over the top in these crises' in looking at the cards they used. It sure as hell wrecked GB's international standings. Aye, as with all these diplomatic hissy fits, one way to see them is indeed as traditional christmas family quarrels – except that all the family members were very well armed.

Good to see tanks making an appearance. And what a lovely specimen that German example is: it looks like it could cover 200 yards without breaking down!

I think you over estimate that design. I think its an armour plated latrine ... giving the concept of lightening war a completely new dimension, aided by a dodgy curry from the Barrowlands perchance?

The fuse's been lit, the ever-helpful Balkans are helping things along... I think we'll enjoy the grand finale of this AAR in 2014. Enjoy the family and the booze and we'll see you next year!

And now the balkan powder keg is real thing. Time to go and annex some minors I think, show them the benefit of being ruled by individuals with manly beards. What could possibly go wrong?

Well one issue is that I do not want to annoy the Bulgarians. I've not checked the quality of their beards but as we will see, they are quite capable of comquering the entire Balkan region.

My apologies for being out of the loop - life and work and all that raised their nasty heads.

Looks like to me the British reaped the bitter fruits of their Italian Smackdown - they made serious threats, were not believed and then decided they did not have the military power and political resolve to carry through. Once would be a disaster, twice is catastrophe. In 'our' history the exposure of British military weakness came in the Boer War but no-one questioned their overwhelming naval power. Here it seems the world has recognized they have neither... and Britain has realized it, too. It is a cardinal mistake to bluff if you have no cards and cannot afford to lose.

I do think the AI makes a relative strength judgement (guess on a continental scale) in determining how aggressive to be. In both cases GB was badly exposed, I'd guess that India is there for the taking by the Russians and Canada is probably pretty much undefended.

But yes, that is GB out of the game, their only remaining challenge is to see if they can hold off German and keep #4 place

Sorry to see the Americans vacuuming up the prestige pile but that is pretty much expected. When you have a continent full of raw materials, higher population growth than anyone else, and keep up the industrial growth for a century and a half, superpower sorts-of-things happen. Might have been better for you if Britain had actually taken the US to the mat, but realistically (logistically) fighting the US on their home ground is pretty much a lost cause (and the AI isn't smart enough to tempt them overseas and cut them off).

I'm quite impressed. I've looked in the event files and this explosion of the US economy isn't scripted but is the doing of the AI. As you say, it has all the resources it needs (apart from the large chunk I am sitting on). In general, from some checking, the industrial AI has done a good job. No major state is in a death spiral (Russia has problems but that is scripted), here I think playing on hard helps as it has a useful bonus, but overall that part of the game works brilliantly.

Coal, coal, coal. Don't suppose China would be of any help, and buying from the US is evidently not enough. I don't remember coal shortages being a problem in 'real' history, so I have little advice to offer here.

Purely for Italy it is pretty realistic, It has always been short of key industrial imports (coal, rubber, oil) and that drove a lot of its policies in this era (in particular the view of never challenging the British). Mussolini's biggest folly was in forgetting this by the mid-1930s.

For the world, I think its less realistic, but then its a neat way to keep the overall size of the global industrial economy to a certain size, so at key stages industrial expansion is a zero-sum gain with the argument of who has the largest part of the pie.

The AI is not brilliant at building coal mines. I think the problem is that the 4 largest producers (Russia, Germany, Britain and the US) can satisfy their domestic demand quite easily and the trading price of coal is never that much. So expanding purely for export is not a priority decision for those states and I guess the AI spots that other investment choices either earn a higher price or meet a more pressing domestic need.

If the Great War is about to kick off then I hope the Brits stay weak and the Americans come in on your side. And remember: naval power is a massive force multiplier in that it denies the easiest and most efficient form of transport. Your costly fleet has proven its worth already. It can't stop the enemy from coming overland, but it can keep him from coming any other way. Of course you know this, or you wouldn't have built the ships.

I've really enjoyed your AAR and will close by wishing you a very Happy New Year.

At the moment I have put both the US and GB to one side for my WW1 chains. The vanilla one brings in GB once Germany declares war on Belgium – all very realistic etc. But in this game, Britain has really been isolated and Belgium has its Italian-French alliances. So I think that puts GB in a tricky place, as its potential friend (Germany) has invaded a state they see as core to their security (Belgium) but is now at war with real enemy (Italy). For balance as much as anything else, I'm tempted to chuck GB in on the German side (since there is little in this end game that is essential to the vanilla PoN game).

With the US I tend to neutrality, I can't see what is in it for them to intervene at all.

I think with the fleets I created, I have the single largest, but me + France roughly equals GB+Germany+Austria. So there is a crude balance in that respect but of course with lack of co-ordination, they can be taken apart one by one. It'll be interesting to see how the naval aspect plays out now the AI has some tools.

Generally, my feeling is this is going to be a land war in Europe so I doubt that my naval mobility will come into play that much. I have enough troops in Africa to handle the German colonies and I doubt if I can spare any of my main European armies. Depending on what the Russian and French AI manages this is going to be pretty tense and I guess start with me very much on the defense.

[loki100]

So welcome back, hope everyone had a good and fun new year ... and in game for 1911 we'll be meeting Europe's new power – Bulgaria but first the usual stuff.

Manufactures



In general, I opted for guns rather than butter, but with a lot of small shifts as the year went on. You can see the overall success of this in terms of the stocks of key goods by the year end. That allowed a small military build up (see below) and created some reserves that I suspect I am going to need.

Non-Manufactures



As usual, a bit less to say there. I have almost everything in my possession open and generally it is near impossible to buy much on the wider market (canned goods are the exception as they are sometimes available). Dyes (A) have jumped not because I have my dye pits open but that they are a secondary product of chemical plants.

My economic management seems to be working as I was around 25% on militancy and 95% for contentment. So in that sense, a move away from consumer goods to military preparations seems to have done no harm.

Wars and things.

Well my contribution to this theme was a small colonial war in N Rhodesia with the usual results. But by April the Bulgarians were well on their way to a major victory over the Ottomans



That war ended, with the historical outcome in June well apart from the Ottomans retaining Pristina – something to double check



By late October, my new Bulgarian chums (up to now I've been trying to make Serbia my friends, well Bulgaria has gone up in my estimation) have decided that one war a year is not enough for a new emerging nation.



Less a war for now and more something for later. This confirms a colony I have ruled for the last 50 years:



The useful thing about that is it gives me a near permanent CB on the Ottomans. Handy if I ever feel the need for a bit of humanitarian interventionism to perhaps remove the Levant or Iraq from their rule.

Exciting things to build

A lot of the techs started in 1910 were completed.

As discussed some change the combat efficiency (most of these are defensive as you'd expect on the eve of WW1)



But I get tanks to build (and armoured cars as well)



The main thing that stands out there is the amount of disruption the tanks should deliver in combat. Each hit will inflict 40 points in both the short ranged and close combat phases. They also have exceptionally high protection value (6) so they remove 60% of the chance to hit.

My supply wagons are upgraded (less excited about this)



Airplanes, yep I like airplanes. Each airbase is a mix of unit types



None of them seem to have incredibly useful stats. The recon aircraft are good for detection but in Europe that is rarely much of an issue and all seem to do more cohesion than combat damage (which seems right).

I think they are as much use as the air units in RuS (which I've never really worked out how to use) but then that seems a fair description of pre-1914 combat aircraft.

I now have Zeppelins too



Again the airbase (which is what you build) has multiple unit types, here the airship and the fighter sqaudron. Here, again, there is a massive detection bonus but in the context of European action that is less important.

Anyway in a fit of excitement I order a lot:




Prestige



Less dramatic shifts than in 1910. GB is probably safe in 4th place unless they have another diplomatic brainfart or Germany does really well in the final 10 years. The US gains 9,500 (from 197,855 to 207,246) and Italy 10,500 (from 278,950 to 289,381). I'm not sure why but my production gain seems to have gone from 227 to 370 (this is a bit random as I lose parts of factories in particular turns depending on resources) but probably does reflect my recent changes.

The improvement in the 'regional decision' score is pretty random, it depends on when things like Universities, Sewers and the few colonial cards I'm still using (only those that generate prestige) actually complete. But again, having eased the problem with manufactures, I have been playing those cards much more often.

On that basis, not much is likely to change in the final phase of the game. I'm essentially growing at much the same rate as the US (so I have no chance of reaching double their score). GB may well slip to #5 depending on how well Germany does (or if they go and annoy the Americans again).

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

I don't really understand this; is the picture you show of Bulgaria's national borders, or is that regions occupied during the wars? If the national regions, then that's quite huge! They even conquered parts of Romania and Serbia!

Was this the Second Balkan War (historical) or one that you created?

[loki100]

I don't really understand this; is the picture you show of Bulgaria's national borders, or is that regions occupied during the wars? If the national regions, then that's quite huge! They even conquered parts of Romania and Serbia!

Was this the Second Balkan War (historical) or one that you created?

The second image shows the imposed peace at the end of the First Balkan War. I used Christophe's script there and its a good rendering of the historical outcome. The third image shows the progress of the Second Balkan War so that is Bulgaria's conquests rather than the permanent end result. Since it looks like Bulgaria is going to win, rather than lose, I'll amend Christophe's war ending script a little to reflect that (I think giving Bulgaria Nis will do, maybe Skopje). I need to sort out Pristina too (had missed that part of the script hadn't worked).

The problem with the base game is that the two wars are scripted, but the Second only takes place if the First is over (logical in itself). But there was no means to end the first so it tends to drag on (this is in contrast to the 1879 events). So that is part of the problem but in addition the Second War is a key part of the WW1 chain. So that was why the WW1 chain fell apart. There are a lot of these preconditions in the event files - mostly logical but they make key events (like German unification) more at risk of not happening than ideal (assuming AI control).

One thing I am trying to do is to list out the precondition events for some of the long but key chains to see if, as part of revising the event system in PoN, some can be simplified - or the randomness removed. German unification (under AI control) tends to fall apart around the 1862-4 Danish events for example, while the alternative Italian chain is not working for the AI as it doesn't play the unification cards, esp not in the Two Sicilies.

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

The second image shows the imposed peace at the end of the First Balkan War. I used Christophe's script there and its a good rendering of the historical outcome. The third image shows the progress of the Second Balkan War so that is Bulgaria's conquests rather than the permanent end result. Since it looks like Bulgaria is going to win, rather than lose, I'll amend Christophe's war ending script a little to reflect that (I think giving Bulgaria Nis will do, maybe Skopje). I need to sort out Pristina too (had missed that part of the script hadn't worked).

Actually I think that giving them Skopje makes a lot more sense, considering that this was their original claim during the first Balkan War (though Serbia refused to honor it): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Balkankrieg_Besetzte_Gebiete_1913.png

According to the legend, the Bulgarian-Serbian pre war agreement is marked by the ++++++ line, but the real boundaries turned out less in Bulgaria's favor.

In addition to this, you might consider ceding Thesaloniki to them as well. The reason the Greeks kept it in real life was they conquered it from the Ottomans. Considering how complete the Bulgarian victory looks in your second war here, conquering all of northern Greece, most of Serbia, and Montenegro, along with part of Rumania, it only makes sense that they would demand the most populated region of Macedonia in their peace treaty.

[loki100]

Actually I think that giving them Skopje makes a lot more sense, considering that this was their original claim during the first Balkan War (though Serbia refused to honor it): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Balkankrieg_Besetzte_Gebiete_1913.png

According to the legend, the Bulgarian-Serbian pre war agreement is marked by the ++++++ line, but the real boundaries turned out less in Bulgaria's favor.

In addition to this, you might consider ceding Thesaloniki to them as well. The reason the Greeks kept it in real life was they conquered it from the Ottomans. Considering how complete the Bulgarian victory looks in your second war here, conquering all of northern Greece, most of Serbia, and Montenegro, along with part of Rumania, it only makes sense that they would demand the most populated region of Macedonia in their peace treaty.

sounds reasonable - consider it scripted ...

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

Just out of curiosity, how is contentment in your Albania? I imagine they're a little restless, with all their Slavic cousins unifying, but how much of the region is Italian ethnic?

[Director]

Britain 'modded' some wooden ships into ironclads - you needed a wooden backing for the iron armor to work best, and Britain had a lot of old but steam-powered wooden ships. The problem is it is expensive to do, the ships cost a lot to operate and they don't last long - it just gets you a lot 'on the books' quickly. 'Upgrading' iron and steel ships can be done (particularly between the World Wars when new construction was pretty much halted) but it is almost always cheaper to build a new ship and you get a more capable one too - older ships never have enough spare room and tonnage for new equipment. The improvements in steam plants, armor and guns going on from about 1850 to 1915 meant a 10-year-old ship was fit only for colonial or second-rank service (HMS Dreadnought, new in 1905, never saw front-line use in 1914 - she was too old and her protection too weak). In theory you can turn a 'Monitor' into a pre-dreadnought, in the same way that 'in theory' you can turn a Renault tank from WWI into a German Panther if you use enough money, time, effort and parts.

Some navies (especially the US) adopted the tactic of the 'Great Repair' whereby a ship was dismantled and a new one built using repair funds instead of money for new construction. Sometimes they even used a piece or two of the old one just because. Mostly this ended after the 1870's.

[Stuyvesant]

And I thought that German tank was ugly. Sheesh! The in-game model looks like a brick shed on tracks. But the stats are pretty impressive, I'll admit.

I noticed Uncle Bulgaria wears tartans, which means Bulgaria is a natural ally for Italy (via the tortuous logic that a fictional TV character named after an Eastern European country, who wears clothes normally associated with Scotland, would indicate that the East European country is a perfect match for your in-game Italy, since you yourself are of Italo-Scots descent. It all makes perfect sense in my - slightly cold-addled - mind).

Bulgaria's tearing up the Balkans, you are rearming with more gusto than Hitler in 1936, and to top it all off the Italian people only seem to be too happy to produce countless implements of bloodshed on a massive scale. Methinks you are well-positioned for the short, victorious war we all know will break out sometime during the summer of 1914. Home before Christmas, eh?

[loki100]

Apologies for not commenting anywhere near enough, real life has proven rather busy unfortunately. Nonetheless, excellently excellent stuff.

Lots of warfare, industrial progress and impressive facial hair (well, reasonably impressive, some of the Italian Prime Ministers left a lot to be desired). The coming conflict looks highly promising too.

Clearly working as designed, the developers rightly recognised the overwhelming importance of Edinburgh.

Very much enjoying the machinations with regards to America, hopefully you can somehow pull it out of the bag and gain double their prestige (quite how I do not know).

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a cracking new year, my good man!

sorry I missed this with the last batch of comments. Yep, our French developers are clearly aware of the nuances of inter-city rivalry in central Scotland. Anyway in my game, Glasgow is garrisoned by a corps of well dressed Italian soldiers ...

I don't think I am going to be able to gain double America but I have stop them gaining ground (on the basis of 1911 and 1912). Since I am now back to war with Austria, I'm looking for that to yield more prestige again too.

Just out of curiosity, how is contentment in your Albania? I imagine they're a little restless, with all their Slavic cousins unifying, but how much of the region is Italian ethnic?

Its been pretty stable for some time. I've noticed this with other colonies that if you hold them over about 10 years the revolts start to become much less serious or regular.

Britain 'modded' some wooden ships into ironclads - you needed a wooden backing for the iron armor to work best, and Britain had a lot of old but steam-powered wooden ships. The problem is it is expensive to do, the ships cost a lot to operate and they don't last long - it just gets you a lot 'on the books' quickly. 'Upgrading' iron and steel ships can be done (particularly between the World Wars when new construction was pretty much halted) but it is almost always cheaper to build a new ship and you get a more capable one too - older ships never have enough spare room and tonnage for new equipment. The improvements in steam plants, armor and guns going on from about 1850 to 1915 meant a 10-year-old ship was fit only for colonial or second-rank service (HMS Dreadnought, new in 1905, never saw front-line use in 1914 - she was too old and her protection too weak). In theory you can turn a 'Monitor' into a pre-dreadnought, in the same way that 'in theory' you can turn a Renault tank from WWI into a German Panther if you use enough money, time, effort and parts.

Some navies (especially the US) adopted the tactic of the 'Great Repair' whereby a ship was dismantled and a new one built using repair funds instead of money for new construction. Sometimes they even used a piece or two of the old one just because. Mostly this ended after the 1870's.

Thanks for that, as ever your knowledge of naval history is impressive. That is how the game models it, the first 3 genearations of battleships are upgrades as more armour is added to the wooden hulls and then you have to scrap the older ships – or send them to cruise some backwater of the empire.

And I thought that German tank was ugly. Sheesh! The in-game model looks like a brick shed on tracks. But the stats are pretty impressive, I'll admit.

I noticed Uncle Bulgaria wears tartans, which means Bulgaria is a natural ally for Italy (via the tortuous logic that a fictional TV character named after an Eastern European country, who wears clothes normally associated with Scotland, would indicate that the East European country is a perfect match for your in-game Italy, since you yourself are of Italo-Scots descent. It all makes perfect sense in my - slightly cold-addled - mind).

Bulgaria's tearing up the Balkans, you are rearming with more gusto than Hitler in 1936, and to top it all off the Italian people only seem to be too happy to produce countless implements of bloodshed on a massive scale. Methinks you are well-positioned for the short, victorious war we all know will break out sometime during the summer of 1914. Home before Christmas, eh?

Fortunately, in time for war, my tanks change shape and no longer look like slow moving steel buildings and instead hint at speed ... and breed some rather cute looking wee ones too.

Hope you've survived both your internal cold and America's attempt to convert itself to a giant ice-cube.

The only problem with the home by Christmas narrative as I found the event chains has problems so Italy doesn't join the war till the end of the year in any case.

I was never sure why Uncle B had a taste for tartan trews but yes, your logic is impeccable ... (ahem)

[loki100]

Well 1912 proved to be rather explosive (and somewhat educational in terms of understanding long event chains). Just to remind everyone, I've basically accelerated the WW1 chain by 2 years, partly out of a desire to test it and partly as I fancied some action (there is after all only so much fun to be add by optimising your stocks of fish ... and I like eating fish).

So this is the first update for 1912, I'll follow it with a relatively short one on Italy's entry into the proceedings and the usual OOB information and so on.

I'll spare you the industrial reports – rest assured its much as before, I seem to have the coal situation back under control (but am going to lose all that nice German coal I've been buying) and from that was able to produce what I needed (which is different to what I wanted but as we all know).

Something I missed was that Nejd-world expanded (I think this is in the Ottoman event chains) so I lost all my sand reserves in Arabia. In compensation I gained some more oil though, so it may work out as a fair trade in the end.



Much more fun, new Battlecruisers:



and new bigger submarines



and new bigger Dreadnoughts.



Strangely the new ones seem less effective but prove to have a much higher power rating when built.

I order up 4 submarine, 2 Battlecruiser and 2 modern Dreadnought squadrons, and more or less use up my steel reserves.

I can now start researching aircraft carriers too.



Someone tries to shoot my dimwit King



I really do hope that this shooting at royalty doesn't catch on or something very worrying could happen.

The Second Balkan War ends with a major Bulgarian victory (the gains of Skopje and Thesssaloniki are by script). As discussed in the scripting thread, I think this goes back to how the 1877 events are handled. Unlike all the other Balkan states, the Bulgarians are handed a large army so easily overwhelm Greece and Serbia. In response I scripted in Serbia a couple of infantry corps as I think they could come in useful soon.



My tanks improve their shape. They no longer look like well protected houses and instead look like something that could, just about, move.



This shooting at royalty catches on





So far so good with the WW1 chain, that puts Austria at war with the Serbs.

The next step broke down till I worked out a key line is testing the opposite to what it should, so Russia's help was a little bit late.





The next gap was that France didn't actual declare war on Prussia, merely on Austria. I'm not sure why the French have sent a CB to Belgium.

By late November, the Serbs are having a very bad time of it



So I feel the need to intervene before it all goes very wrong (so far no-one has actually asked Italy to become involved)



I sorted out the lack of a Franco-Prussian war so they (and the Belgians) joined in. At the moment GB is on the sidelines.



So that is the last peace time prestige report.

I've gained 12,000 (289,381 to 301,427) and the US 10,500 (207.246 to 217,951), so it seems as if their sudden improvement at the turn of the century has slowed down. I think my emergency theft of the spare raw materials may have worked out quite well.

Since this is before any major fighting those casualty numbers can serve as a baseline.

Italy is on 3,953,471, and of my allies France has lost 226,200 and Russia 4,373,199. Germany has lost 853,750 and Austria 3,926,199 (mostly inflicted by Italy).



I'll do a short eve of war update and then into 1913 with a lot of Europe shooting at the rest.

[Asher413]

Always comforting to see the issues I'm having occur in another game! (I'm Russia... and had a defensive treaty with Austria, thus, well into 1915, no WWI since I couldn't even declare war on Austria... but that's a side rant).

I do find it fascinating that (assuming Serbia was given it's "mighty" 45 division army at the start of the Great War) how with different war timings, the results go very off chart! Serbia didn't stand a chance without Russia (and later Italy) keeping Austria occupied.

From a curious standpoint, how true was the timing of the entrants? Per wikipedia, (and some fudging) it historically was:

Turn 1: Austria DOW Serbia
Turn 2: Germany DOW Russia, France, Belgium, UK DOW Germany and Austria, Montenegro DOW Austria and Germany, Austria DOW Russia, Serbia DOW Germany and France DOW Austria
Turn 3: Austria DOW Belgium, Japan DOW Germany and Austria
Turn 6: Entente DOW Ottoman (minus Japan, oddly)

Noticing this though, Italy wasn't a part until in PON terms Turn 19, so it was quite a while before they decided which side to be on (of course, they were able to be the LeBron James of the War and wait to announce their decision in style- the Italians are taking their talents to the Balkans to win the war...)

And one last digression, I'd love to see if Cuba, Panama, Siam, Liberia, China, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Haiti all throw their hats in to be at the bargaining table, and we can't forget the 19 Siamese soldiers that perished.

Sorry for the rant, since my chain broke, I'm curious to see how someone with a better grasp on fixing it ends up recreating the war!

[Director]

Since I did a lot of thinking on this for 'Special Providence' I'll venture an opinion as to what we might expect from this war:

+Italy: veteran army with lots of practical knowledge, real experience and decent weapons; Navy is modern, efficient and large

=Germany: massive army mostly unused since the Napoleonic Wars save for a brief spat with Britain and a bloody nose courtesy of Italy. Prognosis: probably a fair bit of theoretical talk of reforms without much implementation. Without the experience of the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars expect the staff work to bog down as millions more men are mobilized than ever before. Generals will find it hard to co-ordinate formations above divisional and corps level and logistics will collapse (as per F-P War and the beginning of WWI).

-Russia: a massive muddle; it is Russia and the leviathan is hard to train or turn

-Britain: two massive recent defeats (possibly a third if you count the Boers) may bring about reforms but no expansion of the army or increase in funding to useful levels; Navy remains marginal. Expect a cautious defensive with limited amphibious operations and general relief if the home islands are not invaded

-France: no real combat experience since the Napoleonic Wars means the army is not equipped or trained for modern warfare and the leadership is further out-of-touch than the man-in-the-moon; expect massive bayonet charges covered by 12-pounders or massive expenditures on weapons no-one knows how to use, the whole led by generals with limitless self-confidence and no practical ability in logistics. As with Germany but even rustier since they have always been at peace

-Austria: two massive recent defeats at the hands of upstart Italy challenge the army bureaucracy to reform itself; the bureaucracy performs equivalent of an elephant cannonballing into a swimming pool in order to get a drink of water: after much trumpeting and chaos the pool is destroyed and the elephant has forgotten why it went in. Expect the adoption of Italian-style firepower-heavy tactics without the equipment, funding, training or leaders competent to use what they have (this actually happened after the Austrian-French battles in Italy except they picked up French assault tactics)

On balance: massive, disorganized and inexperienced mobs in Russia, Germany and France, a somewhat better mob in Austria, an experienced professional army with a tradition of victory in Italy. Look for the equivalent of the opening battles of WWI if conducted by generals with no experience under fire whatsoever (save for the Italian Army which will perform solidly). Germany (if unimpeded) will prevail over France and Russia and Austria can hold her own against Russia alone if she can avoid quicksand in Serbia. Italy will tip the balance by geographical position, ability to rapidly transport troops, ability to control the Mediterranean with seapower and by quality - not quantity - of troops. Italy will lose her sword if she sticks it in too deep but can overwhelm and destroy an enemy on one front before moving en masse to another. Facing the Italian Army will be a bit like pushing a stick of butter into a meatgrinder: you can only break the machine if you have a really big stick of very cold butter.

The politicians on both sides are going to need to see a lot of killing before they can be persuaded the war is not winnable. As in most wars, both sides think they can win and one might be right.

Sorry to pontificate, I just think the implications of a long peace for France and Germany are hugely important in regard to the kind of war they believe they face. Imagine the European nations going into WWI without the Boer War, the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian and Russo-Japanese Wars as prequels... the AI may actually perform better than the generals would have in real life.

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

Yes, I'm really curious to see how the Balkan states react to this. Tiny Montenegro, friends of Serbia, but will they even bother to join? And big bad Bulgaria, who do they support in this alternate reality? Of course the enigmatic Rumanians are also part of the question.

And the Turks, enemy of Italy and Russia, when will they join this war? I am eager to see.

[Stuyvesant]

and new bigger Dreadnoughts.



Strangely the new ones seem less effective but prove to have a much higher power rating when built.

I noticed that your old battleships have two stars experience, while the new ones have none. Could that explain the lesser stats for what presumably are bigger, badder and better ships?

Must admit that your new generation of tanks looks more like death-dealing machines rather than tracked brick shithouses. The tankette is cute indeed.

We're off to war! It looks like this might just utterly trash all the old Great Powers on the continent, excepting Italy. Methinks your WWI party will probably benefit the US more than anyone else. But it'll be fun to watch!

Facing the Italian Army will be a bit like pushing a stick of butter into a meatgrinder: you can only break the machine if you have a really big stick of very cold butter.

That is a lovely metaphor.

[loki100]

Sorry for the rant, since my chain broke, I'm curious to see how someone with a better grasp on fixing it ends up recreating the war!

I'll do full responses later but the odd thing is the Sarajevo-War chain in the 1.04 beta works fine but the one with 1.03e has a couple of gaps. Problem is the beta re-introduced the immortal garrison bug so its not really useable which is a pity as it makes a few other things work a lot better.

I'll post the 1.04 events in the event discussion forum in case anyone just wants them (it was a couple of yes/no rules were reversed), it won't address any improvements and you'd still need to sort out the problem with the Balkan Wars not ending but it will give a smooth ride to setting Europe ablaze.

[Crixdaz]

Good to see the historical events working. In my game the only event that took place was the Crimean War, neither Prussia or Piamonte made a move to make the unifications. I hope that my war could help them to defeat Austria and to unify their territories.

This will be an interesting WWI alternative scenario, will have a trench warfare or the war will end before the summer?

[Jim-NC]

I noticed that your old battleships have two stars experience, while the new ones have none. Could that explain the lesser stats for what presumably are bigger, badder and better ships?

Only some of them (off fire, def fire, initiative, discipline, maybe assault). The real problem is the range. The range went from 13 to 5. I am pretty sure that is a bug. The range should increase with each generation of ship, not decrease. Also the protection sank. From 35 to 22? That's an almost 33% drop in protection. I would not build anymore 1915 ships if this is what they look like.

[loki100]

Always comforting to see the issues I'm having occur in another game! (I'm Russia... and had a defensive treaty with Austria, thus, well into 1915, no WWI since I couldn't even declare war on Austria... but that's a side rant).

I do find it fascinating that (assuming Serbia was given it's "mighty" 45 division army at the start of the Great War) how with different war timings, the results go very off chart! Serbia didn't stand a chance without Russia (and later Italy) keeping Austria occupied.

From a curious standpoint, how true was the timing of the entrants? Per wikipedia, (and some fudging) it historically was:

Turn 1: Austria DOW Serbia
Turn 2: Germany DOW Russia, France, Belgium, UK DOW Germany and Austria, Montenegro DOW Austria and Germany, Austria DOW Russia, Serbia DOW Germany and France DOW Austria
Turn 3: Austria DOW Belgium, Japan DOW Germany and Austria
Turn 6: Entente DOW Ottoman (minus Japan, oddly)

Noticing this though, Italy wasn't a part until in PON terms Turn 19, so it was quite a while before they decided which side to be on (of course, they were able to be the LeBron James of the War and wait to announce their decision in style- the Italians are taking their talents to the Balkans to win the war...)

And one last digression, I'd love to see if Cuba, Panama, Siam, Liberia, China, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Haiti all throw their hats in to be at the bargaining table, and we can't forget the 19 Siamese soldiers that perished.

Sorry for the rant, since my chain broke, I'm curious to see how someone with a better grasp on fixing it ends up recreating the war!

If the game chain worked then it is pretty accurate. Crudely Austria-Serbia, then Russia-Austria, then Germany-Russia, France-Germany, Germany – Belgium then Britain-Germany. Italy did indeed play hard to get as it had been allied with both alliances at various stages in the last 20 years.

In the end for idiotic reasons of political pride and the hope of gaining Istria and Alto-Adige it joined in. Too many Italian politicians (and journalists) from both right and left were putting the view that what Italy needed was a decent manly war to create and cement national sentiment.

The 1.03e chain has one key event reversed and that wrecked the rest, plus you need the Second Balkan War over for the Sarajevo event to fire (hence Christophe's brilliant scripts to sort this out).

For my purposes I'll ignore the global element, but as in the next post I need to come up with something plausible for Britain.

Since I did a lot of thinking on this for 'Special Providence' I'll venture an opinion as to what we might expect from this war:

+Italy: veteran army with lots of practical knowledge, real experience and decent weapons; Navy is modern, efficient and large

=Germany: massive army mostly unused since the Napoleonic Wars save for a brief spat with Britain and a bloody nose courtesy of Italy. Prognosis: probably a fair bit of theoretical talk of reforms without much implementation. Without the experience of the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars expect the staff work to bog down as millions more men are mobilized than ever before. Generals will find it hard to co-ordinate formations above divisional and corps level and logistics will collapse (as per F-P War and the beginning of WWI).

-Russia: a massive muddle; it is Russia and the leviathan is hard to train or turn

-Britain: two massive recent defeats (possibly a third if you count the Boers) may bring about reforms but no expansion of the army or increase in funding to useful levels; Navy remains marginal. Expect a cautious defensive with limited amphibious operations and general relief if the home islands are not invaded

-France: no real combat experience since the Napoleonic Wars means the army is not equipped or trained for modern warfare and the leadership is further out-of-touch than the man-in-the-moon; expect massive bayonet charges covered by 12-pounders or massive expenditures on weapons no-one knows how to use, the whole led by generals with limitless self-confidence and no practical ability in logistics. As with Germany but even rustier since they have always been at peace

-Austria: two massive recent defeats at the hands of upstart Italy challenge the army bureaucracy to reform itself; the bureaucracy performs equivalent of an elephant cannonballing into a swimming pool in order to get a drink of water: after much trumpeting and chaos the pool is destroyed and the elephant has forgotten why it went in. Expect the adoption of Italian-style firepower-heavy tactics without the equipment, funding, training or leaders competent to use what they have (this actually happened after the Austrian-French battles in Italy except they picked up French assault tactics)

On balance: massive, disorganized and inexperienced mobs in Russia, Germany and France, a somewhat better mob in Austria, an experienced professional army with a tradition of victory in Italy. Look for the equivalent of the opening battles of WWI if conducted by generals with no experience under fire whatsoever (save for the Italian Army which will perform solidly). Germany (if unimpeded) will prevail over France and Russia and Austria can hold her own against Russia alone if she can avoid quicksand in Serbia. Italy will tip the balance by geographical position, ability to rapidly transport troops, ability to control the Mediterranean with seapower and by quality - not quantity - of troops. Italy will lose her sword if she sticks it in too deep but can overwhelm and destroy an enemy on one front before moving en masse to another. Facing the Italian Army will be a bit like pushing a stick of butter into a meatgrinder: you can only break the machine if you have a really big stick of very cold butter.

The politicians on both sides are going to need to see a lot of killing before they can be persuaded the war is not winnable. As in most wars, both sides think they can win and one might be right.

Sorry to pontificate, I just think the implications of a long peace for France and Germany are hugely important in regard to the kind of war they believe they face. Imagine the European nations going into WWI without the Boer War, the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian and Russo-Japanese Wars as prequels... the AI may actually perform better than the generals would have in real life.

Before I answer, can I suggest that anyone with an interest in the Nineteenth Century reads the Director's Special Providence. Its a US Victoria 1 AAR, but it has depth and a richness of understanding of the era that it can be read with no regard to the game engine. Equally it has a wonderful steam punk narrative/adventure overlaid and more fantastic characters than you find in the average PG Wodehouse novel (oh and an explosive ending).

From what has happened (I've just reached June 1913) then the main difference is that the elephant may well have crashed into the swimming pool but it learnt a lot on the way. This new Austrian army is a lot tougher than the old one.

France is proving inept but enthusiastic, Russia inept and unenthusiastic. The Germans have a very single minded operational trick.

Problem for Italy is I have the doctrine and equipment (and tradition) but lack the command. At the start as we'll see in the next post, I lack the Generals to bring much of my potential power to bear. The lack of wars in the last 10 years means this generation have had no meaningful combat experience.

Yes, I'm really curious to see how the Balkan states react to this. Tiny Montenegro, friends of Serbia, but will they even bother to join? And big bad Bulgaria, who do they support in this alternate reality? Of course the enigmatic Rumanians are also part of the question.

And the Turks, enemy of Italy and Russia, when will they join this war? I am eager to see.

Turkey, along with Britain I need to think about. There is a case for saying they could want revenge on Italy but they just have had a massive beating from the Bulgarians so I tend to think in terms of neutrality (unless the Austro-German alliance does really well). I'll let the rest sit this out, there are no events to force any action and my instinct is that neither Rumania nor Bulgaria have much interest or anything to gain.

I noticed that your old battleships have two stars experience, while the new ones have none. Could that explain the lesser stats for what presumably are bigger, badder and better ships?

Must admit that your new generation of tanks looks more like death-dealing machines rather than tracked brick shithouses. The tankette is cute indeed.

We're off to war! It looks like this might just utterly trash all the old Great Powers on the continent, excepting Italy. Methinks your WWI party will probably benefit the US more than anyone else. But it'll be fun to watch!

That is a lovely metaphor.

Only some of them (off fire, def fire, initiative, discipline, maybe assault). The real problem is the range. The range went from 13 to 5. I am pretty sure that is a bug. The range should increase with each generation of ship, not decrease. Also the protection sank. From 35 to 22? That's an almost 33% drop in protection. I would not build anymore 1915 ships if this is what they look like.

I've looked at the unit files and what you can see is how they were designed. Now I think its an oversight. The one advantage the new Dreadnoughts have is they are coded for an optimum range of 3 rather than 2 for the current ones. That may make them even more likely to inflict damage without risk.

Judging by the opening stages, yep, I think a neutral US is indeed going to be well placed to pick up the pieces at the end.

edit - one additional issue is that in this instance the Super Dreadnought overwrites the option to build the older ones (this is different to some earlier BB types), so I've lost the chance to go back. I think I'll alter the unit file so it is no worse than its predecessor as I can't believe this is WAD - that will, of course, benefit everyone.

Good to see the historical events working. In my game the only event that took place was the Crimean War, neither Prussia or Piamonte made a move to make the unifications. I hope that my war could help them to defeat Austria and to unify their territories.

This will be an interesting WWI alternative scenario, will have a trench warfare or the war will end before the summer?

The work that is ongoing on events is trying to make the AI Germany and Italy form. At the moment both fail at an early stage. One of the jobs on my to do list is to review the long chains (the unifications, Balkans, WW1) to work out the key steps where they tend to trip up.

Ummh without giving anything away, in the first six months the slaughter will be enough to satisfy Majtnford to be honest. Opening phase will see some movement but I suspect it is going to stalemate soon.

[loki100]

This is a fairly short update.

I wanted to present the pre-war OOB so as to set the context for what is to come.

First up is the Sixth Army, based in the Sud-Tirol (so lots of Alpini formations) and ordered to grab Innsbruck. My logic to this is its mountain terrain and if I hold Austrian territory I'm hoping they will be more tempted to attack and thus set up a repeat of my tactics from the First Austrian War.



The bulk of the army is on the Eastern sector.



Second Army at Fruili is the lynchpin to my defenses as it can support both Trieste and Sud-Titol.

Fourth Army is at Trieste, again with Alpini formations to make the most of the terrain.

My reserve formation is also at Fruili. Note this has a command malus of 35% so the goal is to use it to hold formations that will be fed into the front line armies as needed. It could also be useful to besiege a tough fort in the rear of operations.

Naval plans



The older main fleet (this is with 1890 battleships) is in the Adriatic hoping the Austrians will come out to play

The modern fleet (including my recently built Dreadnoughts) is at Genova. I don't think I will need it for this phase of the war but its well placed in case the Germans do send a fleet (or Britain decides to join in).

In addition, there is a small fleet with my modern Battlecruisers, designed to carry out commerce raiding and cut German and Austrian naval supply lines



My exciting new submarines are also in the Adriatic (I really want the Austrians to come out and play – as do the French judging by that screenshot).

In addition there are a number of older ships scattered around the Empire, especially in West Africa and Australia.

My main African armies are split into two main forces, one in the South and one in the West plus a mass of native units and a few other Italian formations spread out across my holdings. In total its quite a formidable force but very spread out. On the other hand, I'm not expecting significant operations in Africa this time.



I'm assuming there will be some German units in SW Africa but I'm not really expecting that much combat (as long as Britain sits out).

Finally, I've reinforced the garrison in Albania, as you can see there is a very large Austrian army around there having just finished off the Serbs.



My main plan is to push into Austria but to try and set up a defensive perimeter using poor terrain and mutual support. That should hopefully draw the Austrians and/or Prussians in and enable me to repeat the success of the previous wars. The difference this time is I have allies and I suspect I need to take care of them. So I'll start by being a bit more agressive in the hope of drawing off Ausrian-German units from the French and Russians.

Here's a map of how the main provinces fit together, its important to try and get the phasing of my moves right, but equally its tempting to try and grab land early before the Austrians respond



I've done that as a diagram as it indicates my problem and goals. If I stay in Italy, Udine is central to my defenses, any army there can support Trent (Sud-Tirol) and Trieste. The problem is it is a plain so very vulnerable if a large Austrian or German stack appears.

As above I have the command capacity for 3 efficient armies at the moment (lack of recent wars means this generation of generals has had little practical experience). So that fits nicely to Trent-Udine-Trieste.

Now if I can grab Innsbruck-Klagenfurt-Laibach-Trieste I have mountains to hold and deny those to Austria. The gamble is that anything I push to Innsbruck is isolated until I capture Klagenfurt and to reach Klagenfurt I need Laibach first. This briefly breaks my mutual defense structure but seems a reasonable opening gamble.

Trieste is a level 3 fort (so will spawn a massive garrison and has a large permanent garrison with lots of heavy artillery). Even so it is vulnerable to attack from two provinces and very vulnerable if I lose Udine.

Brief note on Britain. I've assumed they are basically pro-German but a bit put out by the German attack on Belgium. On the non-German side are three of their traditional (in this time line) enemies of Italy, Russia and France. So what I've decided is to script them in sometime in 1913 if Germany appears to be doing well. My logic is there is political confusion about how best to act but a strong desire for revenge and if their enemies are bogged down in a major European war, that is their best chance for a generation?

[Director]

My operational weakness is to rush all my forces into action and keep insufficient reserves, which is why I harp so much on the necessity of keeping strong reserves readily available (which I see you have done by creating a position of mutual support). Looks like you have a solid campaign plan at hand but it doesn't convince me that it will force the Austrians to respond. Strategically my model has always been that of Belisarius - to seize something the enemy cannot afford to let you have and then, by a strong defense, to wreck their army in fruitless, piecemeal assaults. I applaud you for thinking likewise but - without knowing what's coming - I don't see the Austrians being required to act here. They may do so, I just don't see that they must do so. Ideally they should screen and slow your forces while concentrating on giving Russia a thrashing. My instinct would be to push rapidly into the interior (see 'My operational weakness', above).

It is going to be a fine calculation since you need to balance 1) not wrecking your own army, 2) drawing out the bulk of the Austrian Army and destroying it, in order to 3) force Germany to aid Austria powerfully enough to relieve pressure on France and Russia.

I am very sorry (for your sake) that the elephant seems to have learned something from its previous trips to the elephant trap. That makes the AI smarter than the real Austrian high command. Typically an army learns nothing from victory and the wrong lessons from defeat which is why wars usually go wrong.

Wishing you the best... France and Russia need you to hurry; Italy needs you to hurry with deliberation.


Oh - almost forgot. Good to see all those lovely tanks. Does anyone else have them?

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

Must admit that your new generation of tanks looks more like death-dealing machines rather than tracked brick shithouses. The tankette is cute indeed.

A tankette sounds like something my teenage sweetheart would wear on a California summer day. Cute indeed

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

But in seriousness, the way I see it the Austrian command has 3 options:

1. Russia First: Basically what Director said, screen Italy's frontier and destroy Russia's army first. This is smart, but risky because naturally it will be creating a weakness on the front where the enemy is strongest.

----Italy's Response: Act aggressively on the Austrian front. (My wild idea would be to attack mostly in the Balkans, from Albania, reconquer Serbia, then you can have an outlet to contact Russia and really encircle Austria-Hungary. But this is a little crazy; most likely Loki would attempt to move into the mountain regions he pointed out, as this is even more threatening as an advance in the direction of Vienna).

2. Balkans First: You may have noticed I like Balkan offensives But this basically has one goal, and is really only a strategy for the opening phase of the war. Austria can try for a quick warscore gain by invading and conquering Albania, then remain defensive on the rest of the Italian front while they fight Russia.

-----Italy's Response: Again, advance on the Austrian front to relieve the pressure elsewhere (Probably using Loki's strategy of taking the mountain provinces).

3. Italy First: They can of course take the path that Loki prays they will take, which is to slam their armies against the brick wall of Italy's defense. The only way this might succeed is if they use stormtrooper-style operations and send almost all their forces at the critical Udine region.

------Italy's Response: They simply need to defend well, something that Loki is a pro at. Then, while the Austrian army slams its head into the Italian frontier repeatedly, Italy can attack in the Balkans through Albania

Hmm, I guess we can learn two lessons here: 1) whatever Austria attempts, Italy still is in a good position to pressure them by taking the mountain provinces (as Loki plans), and 2) I am obsessed with Balkan wars.

As for Germany, I think their best plan of action is to defend along the French frontier and attack Russia hard. Even if France is weak, she can be reinforced by Italy's armies, so it would be a bad idea for Germany to attack most in France. Italy cannot however help Russia, and the disorganized Russian Army will flee at the sight of the Bulk of Germany's forces.

[Crixdaz]

Interesting, this time your handicap will be the shortage of generals. This prevents you of making great offensives and force you to remain in defensive attitude. Let's see the enemies reaction. Either way this will be an interesting situation

[Matnjord]

Finally, 60 years, more than a 1440 turns (2 turns a month, 24 a year, correct?), all this bullying, warring, industrializing, colonizing, trading... has reached its goal! The war to end all wars is upon us!

I think everyone has said what needed to be said, I can only stand by the sideline pom pom girl style and cheer up the Italian army on its march to Vienna whilst listening to the sound of the guns and the roar of your pretty tankettes.

Here, have some encouragement:

The attachment WW1+Aerhur+Burchur+Italian+Soldier+Girl+Postcard.jpg is no longer available

[cohimbra]

Beata lei che è venuta...