Acularius
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Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:24 pm

Prussia - 1850 Start - A Dream of Empire

Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:54 pm

I'm a new player. So I'm learning as I go about how everything works, mostly combat as I think I have good control over how the economy works (This is where I pander to loki100's AAR and how awesome they are as a learning tool.)
[Nazaroth from the Paradox Interactive forums, Acularius from the civfanatics forums]

So, I decided to go in and give Prussia the colonial cards at the 1850 start, of the UK equivalence. Simple editing of scenario and pool files.
Now I realize in hindsight that this gives me a HUGE leg up, over say France, but its lead to much more interesting outlook on HOW I spend my money (I also removed Negative SOI influences in the options and just jacked everything up out of interests) such as historical attrition for all! Also larger troop and building pools.

So currently my game is in the year 1860 and I've recently became the North German Federation... (or the equivalence of that by Victoria 2 standards.)
I've established sort of a Cold War era outlook of colonial competition with France, giving up Tunis... but generally adopting a policy of containment. So Indochina (sans Burma and the Saigon area) is under my control, and I've been rather active on the West coast of Africa, recently establishing a protectorate over the Nigeria area (in which you would hear me constantly curse the low intensity warfare between the Prussians and the Beninese/Sokotan forces - Jokes on you Benin I have established a protectorate and taken your land... I'm a horrible monster.)
Poor Moltke will just have to work harder (Since this is where I sent him, along with Albrect von Prussia) in combination with either a Dahomey/Asante leaders and their respective armies that I inherited from their colonial establishment. [Moltke can lead a corp, has about 15 command points to provide... so I figured he could gain experience in Africa.]
Current strategy in Africa is one I read recommended for the Americans. Explore - Expand - Outpost - depot (every 2-3 spaces) - and the final nail, the railroad. I also sent down some marines (brigade) and engineers due to how many rivers are in the area, to complement the base force of a colonial brigade and light cavalry (which does most of the heavy lifting, since most of the damage has been in the assault phase).
[I blame Abu Dubai, Qatar and the Trucial States for Prussia's current lust for colonialism... so much wealth packed in a small area... then came Zanzibar. After that, I had a rough idea on what I wanted to do colonially.][SUP]1[/SUP]

What has this meant in regards to spending? Well, I certainly give more of a damn for a navy. Actually my current problem is the HUGE amount of state wealth I inherited from the formation of North German Federation... as I think it gave me 30k in state funds, and as fair as I can tell, I'm not suffering from extreme corruption. So what did I do? I already had a semblance of a navy forming in the Baltic and a sleuth of transport ships and commerce ships to connect my growing colonial empire... well... I spent about 4k in Warship squadrons, frigates and a few more scouts. (I figured the smaller force can be used for commerce raiding, and the large force is the one that does the fighting.)

Judging by history, I have a war with Austria sometime in 5 or 6 years and then the good ol tussle with the French. Since outside of the South German states, about two of my objectives are in France.
It's been an interesting world. Is anyone else interested in how well I screw up wielding my army, that I've been tempering into a decent fighting machine over the years?

I'll post up some images in a bit.
I'll try to do yearly updates, with greater frequencies during war time periods (Doesn't include low intensity warfare with the local inhabitants of Africa.)


[SUP]1[/SUP] - In total, each provinces has a gem deposit at the game start. Its just worth the outright investment. The Trucial State now has Oil... just not enough manpower.

Acularius
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Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:24 pm

Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:05 pm

[HR][/HR]
[CENTER]Game Options
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[CENTER]Market Summary
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[CENTER]West African Situation
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[CENTER]Ministry of War
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[CENTER]Industry and Commerce - Agricultural goods
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[CENTER]Industry and Commerce - Mining and Manufactured good
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[CENTER]Assets Balance[SUP]1[/SUP]
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[CENTER]Regional Census[SUP]2[/SUP]
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[CENTER]SCIENCE[SUP]3[/SUP]
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[CENTER]Colonial World and the State of the Colonies
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[CENTER]Prussian Diplomacy
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[CENTER]Scores and Objectives[SUP]4[/SUP]
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[CENTER]Poor Hetalia[SUP]5[/SUP]
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[CENTER]Army OOB - Main Armies and Corps[SUP]6[/SUP]
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[CENTER]Navy OOB[SUP]7[/SUP]
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[SUP]1[/SUP] Burning through all the goods from NGF formation
[SUP]2[/SUP] Holstein and Schleswig are angry at life - I blame the Danes
[SUP]3[/SUP] HUGE state funds surplus - FOR SCIENCE!
[SUP]4[/SUP] Naughty French holding onto German land, also, slowly catching up to Britain
[SUP]5[/SUP] Good news, Italy has South Italy. Bad News, Austria has them overrun with a huge mobilized army (lots of reserves). Terrible news. I have a lot of shut down orchards and wineries due to Austrian occupation.
[SUP]6[/SUP] Picked up the habit of artillery from loki101. I have decided to throw in some light brigades for some versatility. Worst case is I replace them with MOAR artillery. I plan to expand it some more after I finish up a few more ships for the navy.
[SUP]7[/SUP] Huge influx of state funds saw a huge investment into the navy (since it takes a while for their build times) Main navy have 36(38?)/48 command points used. Comprised mostly of Heavy warships, some light ships for screening and scouts for detection.(required/provided). The 2nd one in Hamburg is commerce raiding, in theory, since its comprised of frigates and scouts. Transports, one for moving army size weights (320 or so) and the other in Zanzibar to move colonial forces

Acularius
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Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:24 pm

Late 1860 - 1862 - The great Mahtea Rebellion!

Mon Feb 01, 2016 2:02 pm

Hopefully the pictures are appearing and this is more of a notice that this post will be a bit longer as I figured since I was near the end of the year 1860 (Early Nov.) when I decided to start this AAR that I would cover 1861 (Until Late December)

Anyway, enough of my babbling, onward for a new history of Moltke (the Elder) and Coal.

[HR][/HR]
[CENTER]Late 1860 - End of 1861[/CENTER]

1860 - Early November to Late December

The world was a calm place, a gentle place. A place of peace and tranquility.
Bah! Humbug! Who am I kidding? Let's get some Gatling Guns!
[CENTER]Image
War! Uhn! Yeaahhhh![/CENTER]

Furthermore, I decide to lay down 4 more squadrons of heavy warships in Danzig. For Peace and tranquility, no? Surely that's why the British and French have larger navies than I. For Peace!

I feel that I've been investing too much in my navy lately, but since ships are REALLY expensive and I recently came into, the nation state equivalence of a rich dead relative, a LARGE inheritance of wealth upon the creation of the North German Federation. I decide to form another army in Goerlitz, not all at once since I don't have unlimited officers and conscripts, but a start. No leadership for it though, however I feel that I might as well start expanding the standing army, and this one will be modeled after the one in Berlin, with a light infantry brigade.
Mostly trying to experiment with troop compositions. Whether or not they work will be evident by how well the French and Austrians crush me... like they did the Spanish and Italians respectively. The Italians clearly needed lessons from loki101 about the virtues of the Dolomites.

As we enter December though, a month of colonial ambitions was underway as we established a protectorate in Ventiene and colonial status over Hanoi.

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I shall save them from French pastries! Clearly they need beer. Mmmm beer.[/CENTER]
[HR][/HR]
1861 - January to March

Although a fair amount of things happened in this period. It would be overshadowed by a shout that changed the world. By change the world, I mean, a few outraged private investors and my English ancestry.

In other more important news. Good job Italy!
[CENTER]Image
Good job![/CENTER]

Less important news. Wilhelm I is now Kaiser of Prussia and the North German Federation. I'm actually not sure how this works. Are they separate, or are they whole? My limited Canadian understanding doesn't help. :confused:

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Oh wait, that was the important news? Oh my...[/CENTER]

Research wise, we come across the tech 'Coal cutting' which will solve my non-existent coal crisis [SUP]1[/SUP] (I have about 4 coal mines closed). This does nothing to solve my dependence on foreign iron. Which, in my most humblest of thanks, I am thankful Sweden provides.

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Please sir, may I have some more?[SUP]2[/SUP][/CENTER]

As I point out that I don't understand all the finer points of Pride of Nations, but putting my corp and army in Schleswig and Holstein respectively (as well as some Military Police), the areas appear to have calmed down. Not sure if pleasant coincidental correlation. Not that it really matters, what Germany does not demand is more beef, which is all the area provides (I already have a few cattle farms closed down.)

Speaking of military. Moltke is having a good ol' romp in Western Africa. By that I mean he finally finished off a force that's been waltzing behind my lines. He also now has seniority of 10.

[CENTER]Image
RESPECT HIS SENORITEH~![/CENTER]

Remember those private investors that I mentioned earlier? Well, they weren't outraged all too much in February. In fact, they were rather ecstatic and started up 2 merchant ships! The shipyards earlier gave me some free replacement for some light and heavy warships as well.

[CENTER]Image
Nigerian Prince Scam methinks[/CENTER]

Thus began the stories of the Ghost Merchants of Oldenburg. I personally blame Nigeria for the Prince scam. Or it was the Danes.

As we enter March though, we see the end of the low intensity fighting in West Africa. Sokoto made peace and Benin was crushed. Until I consolidate the area, I plan on leaving Moltke and Albrecht in the region.
That being said.
Outrage!
Scandal!
TEA!
Thus began the Mahtea Rebellion in Luang Prabang as they stormed the province and destroyed a tea plantation.[SUP]3[/SUP]
[CENTER]Image
Mah Tea![/CENTER]

So really, this only got out of hand because a native force I had sitting there was running low on supplies and I had them stocking up in Hanoi. However, in good German fashion the revolt was crushed in good time.
[HR][/HR]
1861 - April to June

France and Spain are having a good tussle, since it started in the early bit of the year 1860, I can't recall too much of the situation other than I think it was a colonial crisis that got out of hand in for... Tlecmen? Maybe? I know Spain tried to do what I did in the early mid 50's for Cotonou and aimed for taking the High ground. Unfortunately for the Spanish, I lost that crisis, and only lost prestige. They went to war and are enjoying some revolts.
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Everyday they're tusslin'[/CENTER]

As much as I wanted to declare war on France during this period, I was rather content waiting for Bismark to set off a more fortuitous set of events. As much as I would love to kick France out of the Saigon region. Oh... and Alsace-Lorraine...
Look what Imperialism does to you, you forget about proper German lands for Rice... and silk.

To all those Union fans out there, be safe in the knowledge that the USA is living up to your expectations and is safely winning the Civil War. Not as devastating as the real one, but now there are clearly no signs of what modern warfare will entail. Thanks America, you had one job! An anecdote of modern war! Gosh...
Meanwhile Russia abolishes serfdom.

[CENTER]Image
A good year for Emancipation.[/CENTER]

Around this time, the Spanish and French start peace talks. To end it all, my inheritance is dwindling (thank god) in regards to dyes and iron. So its back to normal trade relations with Scandinavia. Please Sweden, I never meant to let you down, hurt you or desert you! Iron please?

Meanwhile, in Africa...
In the wise words of Yosemite Sam. "GOLD!".
That is all.
Seriously though, give that prospector a raise. Although he failed to find anything in Kintampo, he did find 3 slots of gold in Odienne.
Immediately build mines.
[CENTER]Image
A nation state's best friend. Gold.
This message brought to you by vested gold mining interests.[/CENTER]

Rifled Guns are now a thing.
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Rifled guns on ships. Ludicrous.[/CENTER]

As far as I can tell, this has lead the way for Iron-cladded ships to be available.
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Nice boat![/CENTER]

The old versions are thus above, and in hindsight I should have gotten the base stats as I think the ships I have posted above have had time to train themselves over time. You know, because its rather boring sitting in a port all day in Danzig and the people want to know that their taxes are being spent on a good navy. Adalbert got his navy!
That being said, I have no real desire to upgrade to the next series of ships. I might lay down a few new warships and send out some older ones to the colonies.
[CENTER]Image
Shiny![/CENTER]

Lastly the tech, "The Great Eastern" fired which improved the effectiveness of my shipbuilding facilities... which dot the German coasts.
[HR][/HR]
1861 - July to September

As tensions lowered in Nigeria, I finally established colonial control over the region. This imparts wealth, conscripts and the remaining elements that weren't eliminated in the low intensity warfare that plagued the region months before. To put this in perspective. I've been working on the Nigeria region since 1855. Its taken many years to explore the region. When hostilities broke out, at the expense of Barth's exploration element, low intensity warfare was apart of the region since 1857. So this is a welcomed respite in the area.
Time to bring back Albrect and his regulars as well as Moltke.
[CENTER]Image
My land![/CENTER]


Given that I import a LOT of iron from Sweden, about 28 units. I decide to invest in about 3 or so Iron extraction facilities in Sweden.
More Germans! (A multitude of notifications about increases in urban population - MORE TAXES!).
Furthermore, I figured we need a nice picture of Germany.

[CENTER]Image
Well, most of Germany...[/CENTER]

SCIENCE! Well, we discovered the American System of Shipbuilding and 'William Froude'. I'm curious if this is like the Clausewitz-Jominian techs which lock out another branch in favour of another. Oh, in this run-through, I got Clausewitz, in my test run I had Jominian.

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Welp, something I don't care about[/CENTER]

Joking aside, the new shipbuilding facility, as tempting as it is (4 prestige a turn! Each!), requires electrical parts which 1. hasn't unlocked for me and 2. doesn't exist on the world market.
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Froude... Freud?[/CENTER]

Holstein and Schleswig finally get over the Danish-mania and have decided to adopt proper work ethics. (No longer rioting or demonstrating their unwillingness to work.)

Back to pandering to the Union.
CSA has been annexed.
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Sweet Annexation. Countries love annexation![/CENTER]
[HR][/HR]
1861 - October to December

This is where I noticed something.[SUP]4[/SUP]
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The infamous coal crisis[/CENTER]

Thankfully I'm Germany. I can do something about this. To be honest, I do try to keep an eye on the world market but not every turn, usually about once a year or so I'll take a solid look and see what I can do (and exploit). So I opened up those closed mines and offered coal to the World Market gods.
I think what happened is that the new series of mines opened up, in a few turns I'll have the tech fire myself coupled with the fact that I inherited most of the coal market, when I became the North German Federation. So it was a one-two to the world's coal supply.

In about 2 turns, which is pretty normal for Pride of Nations when you put a new good onto a market (a month reaction time). The world accepts my offering.
[CENTER]Image
Thus the world cried out, "COAL!"
[/CENTER]

Well, that's a lot of demand. Now I think about upgrading my mines over time. Here's the dilemma. The new coal mines need mechanical parts. Mechanical parts need coal and steel. Steel needs coal.
Now, that being said, the return on coal is far greater but this is the transition to the reliance on the Secondary sector (Industry and manufacture). The other thing is that this further increases my demand on foreign iron (if I want to make my own mechanical parts) or foreign mechanical parts if I want to import. (Although, I have a few mechanical part shops closed down from the start of the game since they were REALLY unnecessary)
[CENTER]Image
Imagine the white space as a steel furnace. ~Imagination~[/CENTER]

My Chemical factories get better. At life. I mean chemicals and the byproduct dyes.
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No, no, no... meth is no here.[/CENTER]

Prospector had some more success in Africa, finding (I think[SUP]5[/SUP]) tropical fruits and coffee in Bouke and nothing in Bondouko.
People who ate my initial offerings of coal were Austria, France and Spain.

With the Mahtea rebellion crushed in short time a while back, I finally established colonial control of Vientiane.
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I have returned tea back to proper German control.[/CENTER]

Dear god is upgrading expensive though. I think as a test, I upgraded everything at once and it would cost about 50k in private capital. So this is going to take a few turns, definitely since coal isn't exactly a big sell (it costs 2 a unit). Speaking about Sweden. I got a little diplomatically lazy and apparently our relations have dropped under 25 when I wasn't paying attention and they seized an iron extraction facility. Which is fine since they will probably just put the goods onto the market anyway.

Anyways, remember that initial foray into the coal market when I put up 35 units and the demand was 71 back in Early November. Well I am now exporting 80 units of coal with a demand of 149.
The tech I was referring to earlier also fired. "Ore Extraction and Processing".
[CENTER]Image
Miner 49'er and his daughter Clementine...[/CENTER]
Well, there was more than just the Iron mine, but just think of it as a template. Minerals and Nitrates follow the iron model and gems follow the gold model. The in-game version of the Ruhr boom continues.

So this is where I start summarizing my current plans.
Economically I plan on flooding the market with coal until the market either A) Retracts or B) I have reached my current limits.

Colonially I plan on doing what I've had in mind for a while. I plan to continue the march west after I finish exploring and colonizing the Congo (if the Belgians take it, I plan to have a good reason for war later on). I do have an objective in Oceania, Rabaul, which is an island off the coast of New Guinea but since it is unexplored and an island I am in no rush to go grab it. Really because I don't know how I would go about doing it.
So I'll continue my focus on Africa, in good European fashion.
The Great March to Zanzibar continues![SUP]6[/SUP]

[SUP]1[/SUP] I will regret these words come the end of the year.
[SUP]2[/SUP] Did I fail to mention how much I would regret these words?
[SUP]3[/SUP] "Mah Tea! became Mahtea. Get it? Haha! I'll show myself out now...
[SUP]4[/SUP] The actual existing coal crisis.
[SUP]5[/SUP] Since there is no actual report on what they found, so you just need to pay attention if anything changes.
[SUP]6[/SUP] I mean, I could sail... but who wants to do something so... British.

Edit: Images fixed and on photobucket.

Acularius
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Mon Feb 01, 2016 10:39 pm

Should I try to split up the posts to be less massive?

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loki100
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Mon Feb 01, 2016 10:50 pm

Acularius wrote:Should I try to split up the posts to be less massive?


yes ... wee bit hard to follow, but very interesting

couple of questions re events etc. Looks like the Italian unification chain is working as intended but the American civil war is still a union push over? Frustrating as tried to sort out the problem of the non-appearance of the CSA forces in the last set of event changes (presume you are using the beta?)

otherwise, good colonial strategy, if you are looking for valuable provinces I would strongly recommend modern day Yemen - one can become the world's number one opium dealer that way
AJE The Hero, The Traitor and The Barbarian
PoN Manufacturing Italy; A clear bright sun
RoP The Mightiest Empires Fall
WIA Burning down the Houses; Wars in America; The Tea Wars

Acularius
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Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:24 pm

Mon Feb 01, 2016 11:11 pm

loki100 wrote:yes ... wee bit hard to follow, but very interesting

That's what I noticed when I did a test run on my phone, which is how I initially discovered that pictures don't link properly from Dropbox and I switched over to Photobucket. I'll try half year segments. Then ask the question again if people want it split up into quarterly statements.

I plan on doing 5 year updates on the economy and such, while trying to keep an eye on the world over time.

loki100 wrote:couple of questions re events etc. Looks like the Italian unification chain is working as intended but the American civil war is still a union push over? Frustrating as tried to sort out the problem of the non-appearance of the CSA forces in the last set of event changes (presume you are using the beta?)

I've recently switched to a different PC but you can assume I was using the public beta up until my undergoing of the yet to be posted 1862 turn, in which I've noticed some differences, such as the Comparison screen. I use to get 2 comparisons in relation to strengths... but now its back to one whereas the original I think was a comparison of land/naval strength.
As for the Civil War, it could have been that the USA also had some good outcomes, but looking at it the war over time makes it appear that it was pretty much decided in the first few months and then the rest of it was the USA mopping the rest of the CSA within, I suspect a year or so. I don't think, by looking at the casualty screen report that they suffered more than a 100k losses. Not sure how much of that is from the Civil War.
I'm going to install the latest Beta patch now as I don't think the testing branch of Steam is where its at. (Been a while since I've needed to do the install.)

loki100 wrote:otherwise, good colonial strategy, if you are looking for valuable provinces I would strongly recommend modern day Yemen - one can become the world's number one opium dealer that way

Yemen is a great spot. Its already a lovely part of my colonial Empire. In fact, Yemen, Zanzibar, Abu Dubai and the Trucial states is where I experimented with the colonial options.
I'll be honest, you have trail blazed a lot of colonial options. XD
It's pretty clear that Germany has a LOT of potential, which is really making it an interesting nation to play. I might take Russia next, but my compulsion to mold the armies to my liking might cause me some early game frustration when I re-organize the Russian army.

Notes for the next post, is that it looks like I have solved the coal crisis (with room to spare) and it fluctuates now from turn to turn within a range of demand of 130 - 170 units of coal from North Germany.
A bunch of techs are firing off now that are unlocking the next 'tier' of mines, agriculture and industry.

Edit:
I have installed the beta patch again. The USA has only suffered 280k losses so far.

Acularius
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1862 Part Ein "Agent H-I : Coal Member"

Wed Feb 03, 2016 12:27 am

Well, I'm going to split it down into biannual reports. If they still seem rather long, I'll attempt quarterly reports.

If the biannual report works, I'll keep with that and only do quarterlies for something like war, or a particularly eventful year.

That being said, on to the show! :D

[HR][/HR]
January to March

The North German Federation called upon the world a single question.
"Need Coal?"
They world proclaimed, "Yes, give me everything you got."
So much like Black Friday in the States, the world clambered to the North German trade zone to satisfy their lust for coal.

In other news, a few techs fire, one of which is particularly handy in increasing the amount of coal and iron I produce. I shall dig deeply and greedily and tell the Balrog to "Sod off".

[CENTER]Image
Ha! Jokes on you Balrog![/CENTER]

Other wise, we unlocked the Mechanical Factory[SUP]1[/SUP] and the silk plantation. Normally, unless I was playing Japan, the silk plantation wouldn't be news worthy but since we are playing a colonial Prussia. We now own parts of Indochina that does indeed possess Silk. Structural Steel also fired, which doesn't do anything itself, but it DOES lead to techs that unlocks facilities and events. If you haven't played Pride of Nations, this is actually fairly common, discovering theoretical concepts before getting down to the practical applications thereof.

Although this boon of research was appreciated, as it allowed self-sufficiency in iron and helped meet the demand of coal. Which we will talk about later, since Germany is synonymous with massive coal reserves. That being said, we had a huge urban population boom, or it was notable as I wasn't expecting so much growth.

[CENTER]Image[/CENTER]
[CENTER]You know what I see? TAXES![/CENTER]

Well the growth of demand, in the North German Trade node for my coal, is slowing down. In fact I should be able to meet demand this turn by supplying the requested 166 units of coal.

[CENTER]Image
Golly mister, that's a large bubble you got there.
It would be a shame if it bursts.[/CENTER]

Well to be honest, I'm only really doing this to grease the wheels of the world economy. Coal is only worth 2/unit so its not like its incredibly profitable. However, coal is best when making something else and I want everyone to buy German goods, and to supply German shortages of goods.

Granted, we've been talking about coal - ALOT... but that's only because its the lifeblood of the world economy, particularly as the game progresses and more production sites demand coal to function. Control the coal, control the world.
So let's talk about something much more exciting.
SEWAGE!

[CENTER]Image
Better there than on the street.[/CENTER]

If anyone noticed, the only thing I've tinkered with tax wise is that I only touched tariffs. The reason for that is to continuously use "Improve Education" and when available continuously use the "Sewers" card to keep militancy down. Since 'Sewer' and 'telecommunication cards' are quite useful in keeping the more militant areas content, and as I've grown my pool of these cards, improve development in Germany[SUP]2[/SUP].
Back to tariffs, since I didn't want anything to interfere with international relations I decided not to have any, this however doesn't stop other nations from keeping tariffs as we are regularly hit by events where my businessmen are miffed about the taxes laid upon them in foreign countries[SUP]3[/SUP].
Furthermore, I decided to invest in some ironcladded ships by laying down 2 heavy warship squadrons, 2 light warship squadrons and a scouting squadron in Danzig.
[CENTER]Image
Germania, rule the waves...[/CENTER]

I did mention that the replaced ships will be sent to a far off colony.
[CENTER]Image
Is this far enough?[/CENTER]

So, Kuala Lampur is pretty far off, and likely to need naval support to ensure supplies keep flowing to the troops here in the colonies. They're going to need guns and butter if they are going to take the French holdings, or in some crazy turn of events, get invaded by Britain. Like that's going to happen.
Right?

Since coal demand has plateaued, the best case that I was hoping for has happened. Coal demand is being met and as Germany, there is still room for improvement in that I have a few empty coal slots and a fair amount of mines to upgrade still.
So, now that the immediate crisis has passed, time to improve gems and gold again.

Well, not only did coal plateau, it is starting to shrink as we enter March[SUP]4[/SUP]. At the moment is 155, but I suspect this is more of a 'spike' than a sustainable demand.

Recently Bavaria has decided to see the light.
[CENTER]Image
Head towards the light![/CENTER]

They will now accept unification, so now I shall work on the remaining 2 German states that have yet to accept the German call for unification. Come on Germany. Italy is more unified than us.
Research wise, 'Gun Turrets' and 'Siemens Regenerative Furnace' fired.
[CENTER]Image
Truly a man of the Sea.[/CENTER]

Nothing that I own, that I know of, directly upgrades to this as my Steel Mills, I think, upgrade to Machine Part factories and Arm Shops. So I might start working on Steel factories sometime this decade since the prestige is WAY too good to pass up. Remember that the goal of this game is to have the most prestige.

The world coal market's demand is just shrinking considerably, and the supply is increasing. Which I think is a good sign, since I've mentioned before. "Coal is love. Coal is life."
A new report on my inheritance, I've got wood down to an acceptable level now so I decide to open my wood production sites and import the remainder. ( I do try to make an effort to use the world market for goods. I also try to use trade nodes that would be easiest to defend. I don't, however, rely on the market for strategic goods such as manufactured goods, steel, coal and recently I'm considering mechanical parts as important unless its for a short time to meet a minor shortage).
[HR][/HR]
April to June
[CENTER]Image
Such a fantastic beard![/CENTER]

Meet our new President minister, or Chancellor... or Prime Minister. I'm going with Prime Minister.
He has a impressive beard, no?
His name sounds impressive. Adolph zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen.
Some people project jealousy over other people's beards.
I'm jealous of last names.

[CENTER]Image
Mmmmm.... Frankfurters. What its not food?[/CENTER]

Well, what's Germany without more men in uniform? I decide to start another army after the Berlin model sans more limited troop types such as signals and balloons in Frankfurt. I was making Bubbles and Squeak[SUP]5[/SUP]. It was the obvious conclusion. (Its also dead centre in Germany so its easy to move to any of the borders.

We have new overlords.
[CENTER]Image
They're rather bovine in appearance.[/CENTER]

Best to embrace[SUP]6[/SUP] your new bovine overlords.
Now that is out of the way, I don't think I'll actually do any upgrades. Not only does it require coal, it also requires mechanical parts and it offers something that I have in relative abundance with no world wide demand. In fact I still have a few ranches that are shut down, lest Germany increase the Bovine-Human ratio in favour of the cows.

Well, with this half of the year winding down I think I need to point out something about prospecting provinces. I'm assuming, from memory, that he discovered a slot of tropical fruits in the one province I had the card placed. Its nothing bad, but I was there was some sort of report that shows the before and after status of the place. What it had before, and what it had after. SO I know if he actually discovered something or not as I know that there is a potential for him to find nothing, even if it was 'successful'.

That's really my only gripe though. Now onto speculation.
Coal demand world wide has plummeted and supply increased during the period based on my observations. Currently its sitting at 55 in the North German Trade node at the end of May, when as you recall, it peaked at 166 some months prior.
Why?
The economic scenario I fear is that private capital to buy coal dried up.
However I think its more likely that the AI was doing large one time buys to build a reserve.
The naval scenario I fear was a period of a large naval build up world wide.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Here's a sneak peak.
[CENTER]Image
I think Agent H-I has met his match.[/CENTER]


[SUP]1[/SUP] Actually getting to the point where this commodity starts playing an important role. As you'll notice a lot of facilities are using this as an input now
[SUP]2[/SUP] Mostly in the hinterland of the East than anything in the West.
[SUP]3[/SUP] Columbia and Mexico where I've invested in Gold and Gem mines.
[SUP]4[/SUP] A continuing trend throughout the remainder of the year with a few spikes in demand.
[SUP]5[/SUP] Cabbage, potatoes, and sausage... and whatever else.
[SUP]6[/SUP] By embrace, I mean steak.

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loki100
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Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:57 am

Coal is a bit variable across the game. Early on its very hard to find, then it becomes very easy to buy, then it becomes the constraint on industrial production and so on - if I recall the date for this final switch is around 1890s. I think its as the 3rd generation factories come on line and all the world switches to coal powered ships etc. At that stage, for most powers (I'd exclude Germany, Britain and the US to some extent), its a constant struggle to find enough.

I don't think the AI as such stockpiles for the future (I would if playing one of the non-coal powers), more that once its current stocks hit a given level it stops buying.

prospecting is tricky, unless you have limitless memory, all of sudden the goods appear and there is no clue that it wasn't there originally.
AJE The Hero, The Traitor and The Barbarian
PoN Manufacturing Italy; A clear bright sun
RoP The Mightiest Empires Fall
WIA Burning down the Houses; Wars in America; The Tea Wars

Acularius
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Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:24 pm

Fri Feb 05, 2016 10:22 pm

Well, with the release of a new game. I'll continue the AAR until I catch up. Which is the start of 1865. So we have a while and some low intensity warfare as well as an actual war.
That being said, how does one gain loyalty in occupied land? Assuming that is what I need to demand it.
I'm willing to occupy for awhile until a more pressing war begins.

Spoilers.
Debating about how to best diversify and create specialized branches of the army.

Acularius
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Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:51 am

After I finish writing up to 1865, thinking of switching over to doing a Let's Play on youtube. What are people's thoughts and opinions on that?

Given the time in turn processing, I'm thinking of not recording those bits. Or speeding up those parts.

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lukasberger
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Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:59 pm

Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:13 am

Acularius wrote:After I finish writing up to 1865, thinking of switching over to doing a Let's Play on youtube. What are people's thoughts and opinions on that?

Given the time in turn processing, I'm thinking of not recording those bits. Or speeding up those parts.


I for one would certainly watch it!

Acularius
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Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:24 pm

Tue Feb 16, 2016 6:45 pm

This is the to the playlist as is.
I'm a little behind on posting up content with it because, turn times take a while, and even though I plan to stop streaming, turn times will still take some time. They eat into video time without adding much. So I'll spare people that. :P


Can Prussia into Empire?

seathom
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Sat Feb 20, 2016 5:21 pm

+1!!

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