Woes of the French

[Pickhammer]

Hi, I just started playing the Grand Campaign (1850) a couple weeks ago after doing the American Civil War and Piedmont vs Austria scenarios in full. I'm playing France and have made it to Early Sept 1858, Suez construction has just started last turn (I tech "rushed" it) and my int. relations are where I want them (cozy with Sardinia Piedmont and Belgium, cordial with Britain/US.) I thought for a number of years that my economy was doing well, contentment was at 60%, my colonies were growing (I do see a fight for Morocco brewing in the next 5 years though) and then in late 1855 a Panic hit, I wasn't worried, my exports were strong (3-4 times as much revenue as my imports) inflation never hit more than 5%. Naturally the high contentment and low militancy went in the wrong directions and despite every requested measure being passed immediately they kept dropping and climbing respectively. The Panic ended a few months later as usual and my inflation dropped back to nil but the social trouble stayed high and got worse. By late 56 I had Alsace and Champagne in full revolt and by early 57 a few other NW provinces joined. My armies put it down without trouble but production has stalled since then and nothing is improving. I tried to reduce exports to flood the internal market with more goods but after 8 months that has produced nothing, contentment is at 20% and more areas are looking like they will join the fallen including the ones with all my vineyards and luxury goods factories. Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[loki100]

one problem is that France in the early game (say up to 1872) is very prone to scripted and non-scripted rises in militancy, so its something you need to manage rather than avoid.

Some things to think about;

a) are you playing the militancy reducing cards (ie mostly those on the F1 screen) and are you doing so when they are needed rather than when they are available -if you play them when militancy is near 0 they will have no effect (except that education pushes up education as well as reduced militancy);
b) deploy militaty police in the worst provinces, or cavalry otherwise, this will drive down militancy;
c) watch out for various techs that either up population demand or increase their tendency to become militant;
d) are you in a long running war, that can increase militancy.

More generally, it sounds a bit like you have a 'France-first' economic model in operation. This game doesn't reward player autarky as you need a strong world economy to help supply your population (its one of the many ways it differs to a normal war game), in terms of contentment/militancy remember they both want a volume of goods and a variety (so the more separate sources the happier they will be). Don't be afraid about a small balance of payments deficit, you'll make it up with the Private Capital from domestic sales. In single player, you have a quite active role in lubricating the world economy.

[Kensai]

Lower taxes and watch on F4 screen if you manage to sell the three categories of goods (food, common goods, luxury goods) to your population. Play with the percentages you sell in case you want to direct the sale of certain rare goods. Militancy is mainly fought with social laws that modernize your nation.

[Pickhammer]

Thanks, I was in a war with Anam that dragged on for 3 years since I couldn't supply efficiently enough and they are just a small tribal nation. I have only played the F1 cards when needed not as soon as possible and I'm running an import deficit now to try to pump more Luxuries into the market, I am lacking in that one aspect by a lot. I'll play for another year and see how it turns out, I'm poised to capture Hanoi and Madagascar too so that may help.

[Jim-NC]

Sell more luxuries. How much contentment gain are you getting each turn?

[Pickhammer]

I am getting a %0.4ish increase each turn, my contentment in the last six months has dropped to %15. I was attacked by Anam again so I hope to take this mistake of theirs to overrun their last two provinces it shouldn't take more than 6 mon. Piedmont is apparently on a war footing yet by late 1859 no war has been declared though.

[Jim-NC]

The Piedmont thing is a scripted war footing (usually, Austria never fights them as there is an auto alliance between France and Piedmont). You have hit the death spiral stage of low contentment. You need to drop taxes to 0%, put MP and cavalry in every province, and work real hard. Try to get more luxuries to sell (opium, gems). You need to get your contentment increase into the range of 0.55-0.65% each turn. Also, strikes lower contentment in the provinces by around 10% each time there is a new round (so if you were at 20%, you are now at 18%). It will take a lot of patience and work, but you can do it. Also, don't expect a miracle, as the steps I have just outlined will get your contentment up in 3-5 years of game time.

[Kensai]

If not, we can always help you with a contentment fixing script. But it would be more "fun" and you will get a sense of achievement by doing it in game, as part of the challenge.

[Pickhammer]

I've already started doing that, all exports have dropped to a trickle, every luxury possible is being sold and contentment has climbed back to 19%, if the war footing thing never happens how does Piedmont unify then? Thanks for the advice, I've got all military police possible and cavalry is the next step. By tonight I should be finished 1861, which leads me to wonder if the Civil War is guaranteed to happen in the US and if I'll have intervention options as was truly the case.

[Pickhammer]

Ok, middle of 1860 and another economic crisis has hit, darn Japanese, contentment which I had built up to 19 is down to a new low of 14, literally 2 or 3 provinces in all of my national regions are not on strike or rioting, almost every area has a military presence in it but I'm screwed at this point. I will keep working at it but I have very few options left.

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

It sounds like you need to write a script at this point. I can't imagine anyone recovering from such a low contentment level.

[Pickhammer]

Can I do that with a Steam copy of the game? I've never modded a game before

[Kensai]

I've already started doing that, all exports have dropped to a trickle, every luxury possible is being sold and contentment has climbed back to 19%, if the war footing thing never happens how does Piedmont unify then? Thanks for the advice, I've got all military police possible and cavalry is the next step. By tonight I should be finished 1861, which leads me to wonder if the Civil War is guaranteed to happen in the US and if I'll have intervention options as was truly the case.

The war footing event will start, but you need to have a defensive agreement between France and Italy in place before it fires, if I recall correctly.

Can I do that with a Steam copy of the game? I've never modded a game before

Yes, a Steam copy is as any other copy as long as you remember to set it NOT to update automatically.

[Pickhammer]

Alright then, I am torn, I face what the vets deem an impossible quandary to escape yet I do not want to cut and run from all I have accomplished. My copy is set to not update automatically so can someone offer a tutorial for editing a contentment boost? Much appreciated, I really do love this game its just a real challenge to get the balancing right.

[Kensai]

You need to add this in the Plugin_1850GC subfolder of the Events folder.

Code: Select all

SelectFaction = $CMN
SelectRegion = $Ile de France
StartEvent = Contentment Boost Fix|1|1|NULL|NULL|$Ile de France|NULL
Actions
   SelectFaction = $FRA
      ChgPopContentEx = 100;100;100;100;100;100;ALL
      ChgPopMilitancyEx = -100;-100;-100;-100;-100;-100;ALL
EndEvent

In the example I use France (FRA). This will run once and fix contentment (add 100, so it will go max) and militancy (subtract 100, so it will go zero) in all regions of your empire. You can adapt the numbers to achieve the effect you want, for example 50 and -50. Maybe 100 and -100 is unrealistically convenient. Once you are out of the contentment spiral, you should do everything in your powers to avoid this trap again.

Remember, it is very important not to play this game in a mercantilistic way (ie trying to be self-sufficient in everything). The game already takes this into consideration according to the historical proclivities of your nation and rulers (F1 attributes). It factors in bonuses and maluses according to what the nation rulers prefer: laissez faire or a closed economy, or something mixed. By trading with everyone you help the world economy go round and then the AI nations will be healthier and sell back to you more stuff. Check out the map if other nations have spiraled out of control (in contentment) and adapt the script accordingly (change its name as well, because if already run it will be already referenced).

Good luck!

[CarnageINC]

So I am to gather that the moral of the story is don't be a closed economy and trade on the world market? If that's the case I think that's where I'm starting to go wrong in my Prussian game.

[loki100]

So I am to gather that the moral of the story is don't be a closed economy and trade on the world market? If that's the case I think that's where I'm starting to go wrong in my Prussian game.

very much so, this is not a game that rewards autarky. One dilemna, unusual in wargames, is you need the AI to be strong or your own development is hampered - which is a nice dilemna and balancing trick.

you have to make the international trade work so place fleets even off zones where you don't want to buy (then those nations can buy from you), be prepared to buy and sell the same good (ie buy something say in Europe and sell it to a Latin American country).

Its one reason why not to drop the difficulty level below normal - again the AI seems to have real problems.

[Kensai]

In fact, by buying and selling amounts of goods and resources you do NOT need, you make the world go round.

You give those remote AI countries (especially in South America) the possibility to sell their raw resources and buy processed goods, while at the same time you gain from the merchant taxes. The AI does this as well, obviously, but we have noticed that if the player(s) don't do it as well the world economy stalls. You do not need to freak out about keeping stock of everything, after all, some abstracted lack of goods is pretty natural in wars. That won't be enough to destroy your population's contentment even for several months as there are three different categories of resources (food, common, luxuries) and within each type you can "steer" your nation's availability according to percentages (F4 screen).

No worries, if your ruler is a mercantilistic warlord he will be able to benefit by the "closed economy" and potential high tariffs in taxes. You do not need to simulate autarky by only buying and not selling.

[Pickhammer]

Thanks, hopefully this will work better, I did have the AI set to the lowest level (I thought it would work better for my first game) but I changed it a few days ago and the foreign markets are a bit more reasonable now

[Pickhammer]

Its late 1862 now and after applying the fix my contentment has been fluctuating between 79 and 83 for 15 months. Things are moving ahead, though the Civil War ended after 13 months somehow and Sardinia and Prussia haven't expanded at all.

[loki100]

As things stand, you are unlikely to see an AI Italy expand historically. It depends on the Austrian AI taking the bait and launching a suicide war (against S-P and you) which it, sensibly, declines to do. Equally there is a flaw in the Garibaldi script (he doesn't have long enough to take Sicily so he turns into a rebel instead). Italy, south of the Po will form when the alternate event chain kicks in in the mid-1860s.

I've seen people report seeing the formation of Germany and the 1870 event chain will more or less force you into war with Prussia in any case.

[Sir Garnet]

Britain can probably manage Imperial autarky, given its extensive holdings around the world. However, France lacks the broad range of resources of Britain and In my view should both actively trade widely in all goods both to supply fickle Frenchmen with the broadest variety of goods and also develop the economies of its suppliers by buying and reselling their wares. The flow of goods you buy provides other countries with the means to buy what you sell.

Selective foreign investment is also valuable to create supplies of resources in limited supply, but countries that can sell their output will tend to develop further.