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Hello! Welcome to the new PON multiplayer game.
Alas, it simply starts as a personal AAR as the recruitment of new players begins only now. This is a fork of our other MP game "Conflict in Europe" with a more historical and conservative (ie deal with the reality) approach. I will deliberately continue playing Japan, a nation realistically out of the competition for final victory, and Greece, a minor nation in Europe. This will permit me to be relatively neutral in all out-of-game arrangements, scripts, and corrections and act as a "DM" (Dungeon Master) and host for the new game. Hopefully, this arrangement will allow for a very swift game without endless discussions. In case there are insurmountable disagreements, we simply do what is allowed by the game engine (with all its limits). Process time will be 21:00 CET. If only players from the European time zones jump in, we might as well process more than one turn in prearranged evening sets. In the beginning, only major (available at startup) nations should be played, but a committed player could also have an uninvolved minor nation as a sidekick.

This is more or less the situation in rankings:


Our world starts in the year 1878. This is the situation in a nutshell (veeery briefly): Great Britain is still the number one nation regarding Prestige and overall potential, albeit having lost some of its African colonies to Germany. Germany is following closely behind, having beaten the UK and France in various conflicts, in the old continent and beyond. Austria-Hungary is there as well: having lost the German nations' supremacy, it managed to gain the Italian African colonies after the latter's war of aggression to gain more territory. Russia is strong too, having secured Manchuria from the Chinese and its borders in the Far East, it is trying to pacify the Afghan plains and advance industrially. A new war has just erupted against the Ottoman Empire (the historical war of 1877-78) to allow Bulgaria to form. France has been beaten twice by Germany in its attempt to keep and regain Alsace-Lorraine to no avail. The new French Republic strives hard to rebuild its armed forces and regain a prominent position in the world arena. The United States continue to grow and prosper although they have been hardly hit by internal strife and militancy. It seems that the post-Civil War era continues and it will take a very isolationist President for the next years to deal with the situation. Japan is trying hard to prove the world it is there, so it started a war with its main Asian rival, China, over ownership of Korea, after provocations and incidents between these two nations have gone out of control. Belgium is relatively uneventful, but with the right leader it could reverse the situation with the lost colonies in Africa and get something back. Italy is kind of devastated by the last war with Austria-Hungary and the complete loss of its colonies. It will take some time and a very focused player to regain its old glory. Last, the Ottoman Empire has just been declared war upon by the revolting Balkans states (the Bulgarian revolt!) and the Russians who want to make sure the Balkan states form.

All nations have been set to AI, the first script of the day is the reversal of the bogus unhistorical BRZ force pool. Tomorrow I will be adding the arranged return of Venice from A-H to Italy. In the following days more corrections and adjustments will follow as to allow for a very difficult and realistic game. Anyone wishing to join, just drop a line here or PM me. Only history-savvy players, please.

In the meantime, enjoy the ongoing AAR!

Onward!

Late January 1878

The Chinese forces try to break the siege of Beijing to no avail. The Japanese engineering battalions have taken their positions to undermine the fortifications. This was possibly the first but not last wave of the Qing trying to force a breakthrough and supply the besieged capital.



The Ottomans have landed on the Dodecanese island chain, surprising the local militia garrison.



A corps of Ottoman infantry came on the shores of Peloponesos, General Soutsos managed to stop them from seizing the important city of Patras.



In other news, the Russian Empire has issued a partial mobilization of its armed forces as it prepares to hit the Ottomans hard. The war in Egypt between the Germans and the Egyptians may be considered over, the Egyptians do not pose threat any longer for the Germans. The world awaits for the peace discussions to start.

Early February 1878

THE SIEGE OF BEIJING HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED

This past fortnight was quite quiet, the Chinese have not made any attempt to break the siege of Beijing which has now started in earnest. The cold snowy terrain is not ideal for an assault and our troops definitely do not feel ready to seize the city without first breaking all the defences. We didn't manage to breach the fortification rings of the Chinese capital.

The Tianjing-Beijing railroad is being used full time to ferry supplies and in case reserves from the port need to come in. The Commander in Chief of the Japanese Expedition, Field Marshal Aritomo, has landed on the Asian mainland to lead the preparations himself.

The Chinese can be seen amassing troops, but internal chaos and the ongoing Taiping rebellion does not permit them a quick mobilization. We must act fast!



OTTOMAN TROOPS GATHERING

A very disturbing sight indeed! The two Ahmed (Eyüb and Muhmat) Pashas changed course this past fortnight and instead of heading for the Northern Balkans seem to be making preparations to assault the Greek Royal Army in Thessalia. The sight of the two Turkish armies has spread panic in our ranks, it is said that the elite 'Nazim' Guards are being marched against us. The sheer number of the troops is worrying: at least 3 corps are moving against us. We pray for the quick Russian mobilization to create a second front otherwise the Balkan insurrection may soon be crushed!

At least these past days we managed to bounce Ali Pasha's invading force who now probably does not stand a chance in Peloponesos.



In other news, the Germans have accepted the peace offer from the Egyptians, the war in Africa is over. The Egyptians keep Suez* and acknowledge the German ownership of the colony of Sudan.

(*should probably change the structure to German through script next turn)

Early March 1878

THE BALKAN LEAGUE

The Russians have united the revolting Balkan under a single umbrella. The allies now fight in unison the Ottomans. Fortunately for us, one of the Pashas decided to head North again to deal with the Serbs and the Montenegrins. Finally, we can see the Russian armies starting to mobilize and group against the Turkish borders.



WHEN WILL THE WINTER BE OVER?

In the Far East, the siege of Beijing continues, the Chinese troops still amass but our intelligence is lacking at best. Further immigrants arrived in Pusan, Korea from the Home Islands.


PS. Corrective script run to abstract the RUS-MOL-MON-BUL-SER-GRE alliance and close collaboration.

Early April 1878

The Greek army has made its moves. As Ahmed Muhmat Pasha heads East seemingly to counter the much more worrying (for the Ottomans) Russian incoming armies. We have set two objectives: Thessaloniki and Tirana. This will cut the Turks out of two important exits to the sea. King Georgios will march towards Thessaloniki with the cream-of-the-cream of the Royal Hellenic Army, 4 divisions worth of infantry and 2 of cavalry, including regiments of heavy siege artillery. General Soutsos will try to pacify the Albanian populations be seizing the city of Tirana.



Indeed, the Turkish army in Thessaloniki retreated beyond river Vardar (actually Strymon), leaving only the Garrison in place. In the Mediterranean Admiral Palaskas has been conducting raiding operations and together with the Russian fleet have damaged many Ottoman merchant ships and their escorts under Woods Pasha.

The Beijing fortification rings have been completely breached! Through careful demolition work and continual pounding, the Japanese armies are now only few miles away from the Imperial Palace. Field Marshal Aritomo will judge the situation and will decide in the coming days if an assault on the Chinese capital must be done now or after the snows melt. There is an estimate of 50-100K Chinese troops protecting the city.

There is a major crisis brewing between Japan and the USA, as the USA is allied with the Chinese and does not wish to see its commercial partners in the Far East fight it out, it is not good for business. The nations are planning their next moves!!




PS. The crisis initiator with these diplomatic pressures has been the USA, according to the game engine they don't have a Just Cause for this (-1), but given their Prestige among the nations they have Dominance (+1). I must play it carefully as Japan as I wouldn't want the USA to interfere in this all Asian war.

Late May 1878

General Soutsos took Tirana; a victory earned as the Turkish defenders provided a decent resistance. A division of Russian cavalry freed Montenegro's capital!



There is a fantastic Bulgarian* General (5-5-1) that took command of the rebels in Struma. He is the perfect match to go against Ahmed Eyüb Pasha if the situation demands it. General Soutsos is marching now against Skopje where he expects at least another division of Ottoman defenders. This move is critical as the Bulgarian defenders might not be getting enough supplies**.



Japanese marines are ready to depart from Tiajing under General Tani to invade another Chinese city. Admiral Arai's fleet is moving into position to assist with shore bombardment and just in case anyone attempts to interfere with the landing.



PS. In real life this was a Russian* leader who actually helped the Serbian army in 1878. But it is great the engine assigned him to the Bulgarians, goes great with the story as it unfolds.
**you can deduce that from the mid high green bar

Early June 1878

Skopje liberated!! Another Ottoman division neutralized! Thessaloniki's garrison surrendered after seeing how hopeless their situation had become.



The chessboard is set, the pieces are moving. General Soutsos continues further North to Kosovo. The entire Western Balkans have been liberated by the combined operations of Russian, Greek, Montenegrin, and Serb troops. We have opened a supply route for Struma and we are hoping to join them soon. The King himself wishes to go head-to-head with Ahmed Eyüb! More victories will mean more negotiating* power when peace is finally done.



The Caucasus front is relatively silent. There the Russian troops seem to be using the Persian passage rights to outflank the strong defensive Turkish positions on mountain Ararat.



The Balkans as their liberation progresses.



In the meantime, in China, we continue securing the defensive positions by the river. A relatively small formation of Chinese troops, including the fearful raiders was routed. We managed to capture their supplies.



The next moves are obvious. Send the captured supplies in Tianjin where they should be used to help resist a potential siege. Zuo Baogui's army has been spotted on the other side of the river, we are really curious of their future move.




PS.* I will certainly end this war when Russia, the Balkans' major power finally settles this. I don't think the minor Balkan nations can go without Russia on this one.

Late June 1878

The Caucasian army group of the Russian Empire is making some brilliant* pincer movement. To avoid having to fight the Turkish army around Mount Ararat and the various easily defendable mountainous regions (green area) they try for an encirclement around relatively flatter Northern Turkey and neutral Persia (red arrows). If they trap the Ottoman General inside the green area they could starve him of supplies before even engaging him!!

This is a map under the filter of Theaters of Operations. The 4 diverse colors mean four independent theaters where a crafty Russian player can assign a different 3-star General as Commander-in-Chief.



With the series of defeats delivered to the Ottomans by the combined Balkan League nations and the Russian Empire, the Turkish military power has decreased considerably. In respect to Greece they are now only 3x more powerful, a huge drop in respect to the 6-8x when the war started.



PS.*I am extremely pleased at how the AI behaves in a game where economy has been working fine the previous years. All nations, especially the major ones, are very healthy, so Athena ( ) has no problem making the right moves every time. Check the map of Caucasus from just a month ago.

PPS. I have installed v1.03e and changed the name of the game to Game of 'Victorian' Thrones. Hardcore historical rules obviously apply and are stressed.

Early August 1878



The Russians have made a breakthrough in the Eastern Turkey Theater!! It seems they have broken along the lines of the Ottomans troops and are heading now West. Some smaller (defeated) Turkish formations are fighting with the Russians over neutral Persia, given that the Shah has allowed both nations with passage rights.



Rhodopos has been freed by the combined Russian and Greek operations. The Greek King has marched East up to the Bulgarian Black Sea, he is now laying siege on Burgas. He will assault in the next days, given its garrison is minimal. The Ottomans are in retreat everywhere!

There is still an important army with some of the best Ottoman Generals in Thrakia, we will wait this fortnight to see if they will retreat voluntarily. Our Russian allies are very strong, but we want to avoid casualties. We had a wrong piece of 'intelligence' the past months. The I Nizar is a normal infantry corps, but we now know the elite Ottoman Guards have joined the battle!



A snap Greek election to gauge the will of the nation to fight with the Balkan League has confirmed Prime Minister Koumoundouros' policies.



The 'River Snakes' squadron has taken some return hits from Chinese coastal cannons, but nonetheless it will now start its sortie upriver on Yangze. General Arisugawa will enforce the marines in the positions North of the river. He has landed with important cavalry formations.



Chinese diplomats have reached us with an offer from Empress Cixi to end this war, but yet again the offer falls short of expectations. They only offer us Pusan... Meh, a small port town as an exclave in a Chinese Korea? Why stop there? We have paid with blood and fire our losses, we want to keep the entire Korean peninsula and Formosa, two regions that have nonetheless disrupted the Sino-Japanese relations the past years.



The new Home Lord, Ito Hirobumi, will decline the Chinese peace offer, until they offer something more serious. In the internal front, he has asked to decrease the fiscal pressure on every luxurious product the Japanese market offers (Excise Taxes from 50% to 20%) and passed yet another reform to curb militancy and increase the literacy of ordinary Japanese. Great moves by the new Home Lord already!

Late September 1878

Prime Minister Koumoundouros' attempt to curb the power of the local nobles failed a second time in a month in the chambers of the Athenian parliament as the various representatives fear this will alienate the rich Greeks of the newly acquired territories who will support the status quo, ie staying with the Ottoman Empire. In an attempt to limit the rising militancy, the PM has sent in the troops, but little has been achieved. He should try to push his agenda in the following weeks.





With Petimezas engineering skills the sappers are doing a great work to undermine the heavy Turkish defense works by the river Evros (Marika). Soon enough the combined Russian-Greek forces will have access to the city and nothing can save the defenders. In the meantime, the Ottoman Generals believe they have much more to lose on their East and head to meet the Russians coming from Anatolia.

(the brown color in the Western Balkans is not Ottoman, it is actually Serb and Montenegrin)







PS. And a very curious bug indeed. Somehow the structure of Suez was sold by Egypt to Great Britain, effectively disappearing from the map!

Early October 1878

The Greek forces have occupied the Galipoli peninsula as the siege of Adrianople keeps going, however no extra breaches or progress has been reported for this fortnight.

In China, General Arisugawa crossed river Yangze to the South, deep in the Chinese land as he tried to open a corridor to threaten Shanghai. The ironclads from the river opened fire to the peasant militia* of the city. The Chinese have another problem to solve, the rising Taiping disorder.



In other news, the Wolof is a proud tribe in Western Africa that perhaps one day may challenge the Europeans in Senegal-Gambia. At the moment they remain unchallenged in only a small strip of land South of the British colony, between rivers Gambia and Casamance.



Their Sultan is a rather crafty ruler, albeit their style of government being on par with the rest of tribal Africa: ie lacking.





PS. That's even simpler* militia. The M has not even the usual crossed line of infantry militia.

Late October and Early November 1878
(two turns)

Arisugawa stormed the city of Nankin under the support bombarding of our river ironclads. The peasants were no match for the trained Imperial Japanese Army, they surrendered in droves, we captured more than 8000 of them. New siege equipment has landed το help with the final assault on Shanghai that we plan to do before 1879.

Chinese light cavalry found the opportunity and freed Heifei, not before taking serious losses. We should be careful to cover our flanks all the time. Fortunately Heifei is on the other side of river Yangze.



The Adrianople fortifications have been totally breached. Now we simply have to see what the Russian High Command will decide and when the officers feel ready we will assault the city. Six infantry divisions, 2 cavalry divisions, and several independent brigades of well supplied troops comprise the Greek Royal Army. Add to this almost 160000 of well-prepared and battle-hardy Russian troops and it should be relatively straightforward.

By taking the city the situation of the Ottomans will be completely hopeless as nothing at that point could possibly stop the Balkan League's march to the Turkish capital. The "Ellinikos Vasilikos Stolos" (Greek Royal Navy) bombarded the Turkish shores in Asia Minor as it followed the Russian Navy across the Dardanelles to blockade the Ottomans from the Sea of Marmara!

Prime Minister Koumoundouros is continuing his "inner affairs" work as well. As the Greeks discover the benefits of General Education (F7), he has asked to institute schools all over the territory (education action). This will hopefully be one of the strongest attempts to curb militancy and rise contentment.




PS. If Adrianople is taken, sooner or later, I will stop the war via script as I am not really sure how the AI vs AI will handle it after this point. I do not want to see the Ottomans completely overrun, I can already probe they have run out of replacements and possibility to stop the Russian assault. In real life, when the Russians were indeed in Adrianople the Ottomans asked for terms.

Late November 1878

The Ottomans have yielded! There has been a peace arrangement* between the Bulgarians and the Ottomans these past days. The Ottomans accepted the peace offer from Bulgaria... this shows the difficult situation of the Porte. The Greek Navy continued its blockade in the Sea of Marmaras and bombarded shore targets in the Turkish ranks while being hit back by coastal artillery. The Russians assaulted and took Adrianople, passing its administration to the Greek troops. The Ottomans are coming to terms with the Balkan League, accepting the inevitable.

The situation was unbearable for the Turks these past months. Defeats everywhere in the Balkans and Anatolia, help not coming from anywhere, even strikes erupting in Constantinople as people were tired of this senseless war. The Ottomans took the advice of Austria-Hungary and Great Britain and accepted the new situation. There is armistice to be signed right away and the terms will be discussed in a peace congress hosted by the Germans in Berlin.




PS. The AI has made the arrangement this past turn by itself: Bulgaria asked, Turkey accepted. This and the fall of Adrianople have been the signals that this war is over.

December 1878

THE BERLIN CONGRESS

The Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the Principality of Bulgaria, the other nations of the Balkan League (the Principality of Moldavia, the Kingdom of Montenegro, the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Greece), the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Khedive of Egypt, gathered today under the auspices of the German Emperor Wilhelm to discuss a potential exit policy from this war.

All nations that gathered in Berlin today expressed their will to end this war and accept a peace plan written by the Austrian Emperor and British Empress. Germany acted as a neutral arbiter. The peace agreement, already signed by all parts, declares the following:

Russia will gain the region of [I]Kars and war reparations of 20% of the Ottoman profits for the next 10 years. Bulgaria will have the historical regions of its ancient Kingdom, in all those places that there is an ethnic majority of Bulgarian population. Greece will gain the regions of Thessalia and Epirus, as well as control of the Colony in Libya. The Ottoman Empire will have the Protectorate of Arabia returned by Russia. Serbia will get the regions of Nish and Sava. Italy will get back the Colony of Eritrea and will be assigned to have the Protectorate of Abissynia (which has been downgraded from colony, the governor will depart). Austria-Hungary agreed in those terms to decrease the potential revanchism by the Italian population. This was the second major move by A-H, after accepting to abandon Venice for good. Oman, not present in the discussions, has been allowed to gain the region of Suhar, which was under Russian control when in Arabia.

There was some animosity between Austria-Hungary and the Porte, as the first was not pleased with the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a vary unstable area near the heartland of the Habsburgic Empire. All nations wish the war in the Far East to be over soon and have sent messages to the Qing and Meiji Emperors for a prompt solution.

---

In the meantime, the Japanese are attacking the city of Suzhou to trap the Chinese General Liu Kunyi as the Japanese marines under another General cross the delta of the Yangze to surprise the defenses of Shanghai.



The surprise was successful, the city garrison surrendered without a fight, without the need to start a siege. There is rumor that after the telegrams from the Congress of Berlin that peace is coming in the Far East too. Empress Cixi has been convinced the situation is hopeless as more and more revolts erupt in the regions of Taiping rebels' control.

[/I]

Early February 1879

Korea has ended its armed conflict with Japan. Seeing that China no longer can protect it, the Joseon Dynasty decides to bury the hatchet. The alliance between Korea and China still exists, but it is nothing more than a dead letter now: China is no longer the protector of Korea. This is great news for the returning normality to the peninsula as it means the revolting elements will be much easier to contain.

The snap Austrian war (regional conflict) between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire is over. Peace returns on the land. The first Greek contingency under Lieutenant General Papadiamantopoulos has landed in Cyrenaica. The weather conditions in Africa are tough, thankfully it is still winter. Their job now is to hunt down any remains of Berber rebels as well as delimit the Fezan activity in the South. More men and supplies will be coming in the future, Libya has to be protected.



PS. So far so good with the hardcore supply rules I have implemented. Everything works fine and it's much more realistic now with the 'difficult' logistics chain. In the near future I will be adding some limited colonial actions to Greece and eventually tweak relations between some nations as they seem to be overly friendly due to certain peace arrangements. The AI is doing a great job in keeping all countries' economies working, even militancy-prone USA is doing fine, California's mines have returned in productivity. The AI is also quite prone to do passage/supply rights and diplomatic moves with various nations around the globe. This is not necessarily bad, but I have to be wary of potential bizarre consequences.

Late March 1879

Some months after the peace treaty of Berlin, the new Greek supply chain has been arranged. The Ottomans are now not open anymore for the propagation of supplies, understandably. The Greek state has arranged for a small direct loan from Russia to beef up its armed forces. The Khedive of Egypt agreed for a similar loan from Germany, but mainly regarding private investments to rebuild the country.



In the Far East, Japan is sending Military Police to keep the Korean possessions under control. Now that China is not Korea's protector anymore, there is need for a strong force at all times, especially at this delicate moment of declaring Korea a Japanese colony.



PS. Scripted corrections on relations as well as implementation of the loans using the loan templates. The lighter green color on the map implies a depot.

Early April 1879

Ito Hirobumi is a very strong proponent of an expansive Japanese colonial policy. He has agreed that emigration to the newly acquired colonies and protectorates is a pragmatic approach to the problem of the masters being the minority, especially in the Korean regions. Nippon is in full-swing industrial revolution and coal is needed, therefore coal mines are being opened in the strategically important Korean peninsula, while Japanese immigrants arrive to "dilute" the local population and lower the possibility of having the situation run out of control.



In Greek Libya, the North African division feels for the first time the hardships of marching in the dusty roads of Africa without appropriate equipment. We hope to reach Tripolitania before summer arrives, otherwise we seriously risk to starve or be too weak to face the local rebels. We ask ourselves, are those Berber rebels from the French territory aggressive?



PS. Added some basic colonial actions to Greece (including ability to build roads and send immigrants). This is important to further develop Libya. I really wonder how the AI will react as Italy with Greece stepping into its SOI.

Late April 1879

With the newly acquired state loan by the Russian Empire and the many returning drafted young men wishing to continue a military career, the Greek government has decided to create its first ever corps-sized formation, a standing army of proportions worthy of a serious nation. There were some voices in the parliament criticizing the enormous expenditure of such an undertaking, but it is said that King George wanted this himself. The first "soma" (corps) takes the letter "A" from Attica and will have its HQ in Athens, responsible for the defense of the capital.



PS. I will create a script to abstract the War of the Pacific between Peru-Bolivia and Chile. Probably the most straightforward way is to script a state of war between said nations (including an alliance between Peru and Bolivia), as well as set objective points for each other (Atacama Desert). I really have no clue how the AI will fare in this war, but if it goes out of control I will intervene again as Game Master.