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.
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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!
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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]
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Shiny![/CENTER]
Lastly the tech, "The Great Eastern" fired which improved the effectiveness of my shipbuilding facilities... which dot the German coasts.
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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.
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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.
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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]
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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.
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Thus the world cried out, "COAL!"
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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)
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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".
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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.