PrussiAAR: Herrliche Zeiten (realism & rebalance mod)

Briefly after the 3rd Franco-Prussian war I gained a deuse-ex-macchina CB on Switzerland. So I pounded away and annexed Eastern Switzerland which trimmed my border quite nicely. As a "thank you" to my fuck you-move I got Switzerland into my SoI and alliance. Sure, they're only half their original size, but at least they're safe now...

Next move: Evaluating the foreign policy situation. With an infamy of 24.83 I wouldn't be doing any moves any time soon. So why not expand my influence? I got Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium into my SoI and thusly secured all flanks in case of war.

Problem: Being the number one in the world has this strange side-effect of nobody daring to mess with me. The world became a peaceful place. Only highlight in this decade: The British attempt to conquer New England, which was soundly repelled by the US-Mexican coalition (that's a new one, love it).

My only other expansion thus far has been Luxembourg, peacefully even. My brilliant new political advisors Rabid and Ivir Baggins (now that Bismarck's gone), brought it to my attention that I could peacefully annex Luxembourg by SoI-ing it.

My infamy is below 15 again and I already prepared a clash with Russia. By decreasing relations to -200 I'm waiting for them to make the move. Russia albeit being a GP is mostly occupied by rebels and while fielding a great navy, barely has an army. It's ripe for the picking.

This is the world in 1877:






I just upped the ante a bit. Since there are hardly any wars in this decade, I accelerated BB decrease in peace from 0.1 to 0.15. That should create more wars with and without my participation.

EDIT: Fuck it... neither modding BB decrease nor altering BB limit has any effect. Maybe you have to start a new game for it. Looks like I'm stuck with the post-heroic age...
EDIT 2: Fuck me! I modded the vanilla Vicky2-files (lol). Forgot that I'm playing a mod (copied vanilla into game/Vicky2 modded)... okay, will return later.


Did it! Now let the world tremble!

thatguy said:

You're #4 industrially. We can't have that now can we.

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There's not much I can do about that. I went laissez-faire and now I have to deal with it. All I can do is keeping industry techs up to date.
At one stage I noticed that I had way too many intellectuals (10% with 5% being optimal), so I'm currently vastly reducing my education spending.

One question for everyone:
What shall I do with my National Focus points. I have no idea. I use one to boost bureaucrats in Greenland to make it into a state. Since I don't want to go colonial this time, I simply don't use the NF points. Any ideas?

@BB-limit
The only example of someone crossing that limit I can think of was in a Brazil beta AAR. Things turned ugly fairly soon for him. That's why I didn't dare doing it yet. But maybe I'll go for it, spice things up.

@BB decrease rate
Just what Dewirix said. Every aggressive nation benefits from it. Afterall, I want to get something interesting out of it.

@NF Points
Key industries and encourage capitalists. Got it, will try!
0% taxes for the wealthy are already in place. Maximum I ever charged the wealthy was well below 10% anyways. Rail techs are always up to date.

A free "acquire state" CB on France granted me two additional regions without surpassing the BB-limit. This 4th French war was a tough one. France threw over 300 units into the fray and had allies from Sardinia to Portugal.



Next step: Preparations for operation "Minimi Barbarossa", a midget version Hitler's Lebensraum concept.
Goal: Gain two Russian regions (severely trimming the border), slightly overstepping the BB-limit.

Russia was in no shape to put up any resistance, battling with hundreds of rebellions. Only obstacles:
- BB limit
- having to conquer numerous provinces because of Russia's size

I rushed through Russia and just when I was about to seal the deal, Austria took a 300+ division stab at me. So I settled for one Russian region, in order to repell the Austrian invasion. A human player would have exploited the situation better than the Russian a.i. Austria was eventually defeated and we settled for a white peace.

Then in 1888 another "acquire state" CB on France. Oh, those poor buggers.
I took it obviously and decided to go south, eventually linking Germany with the Mediterranian. France wasn't in any shape this time to be a threat. Austria however exploited the situation and dow'ed me again.

Luckily for me, France didn't require many troops, so I threw the bulk of my armed forces against Austria, again settling for white peace.

In France the prospect of gaining access to the Med was too tempting, so I broke with my only golden rule: Never cross the BB-limit!
I knew that I couldn't fend off multiple opponents simultaneously. I thusly occupied all of France before adding the additional war goal. The reasoning behind this:
Once I add the goal, my infamy would be around 30. I can however immediately end the war with France due to my through the roof warscore. Should the shit hit the fan, I would at least have freed my armies to repell any attacker.

1891 would make or break Germany's ambitions to become the undisputed number one in the world. Luckily for me, nobody dared to attack me and my BB eventually dropped below 25 again. Can anybody stop me now?



For some reason, France is still number 4 in the world, despite her poor state. Russia gained control over one of my Bohemian provinces. Don't ask me how and why. I can only assume that it's caused by a rebellion in the vicinity. Why Russia would get that province though...

badger_ken said:

mein gott, the Prussian war machine is incredible! Looking at your screen grabs here, I see you inflicting 489 thousand casualties, while losing 49. If that's a "tough" war, I'd hate to see what you consider an easy one

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I'm a big bad schoolyard bully. I only pick fights with considerably weaker foes. Hence I classified this as a tough war. I just hope that France doesn't have a big brother.
But seriously, France threw everything but the kitchen sink at me and had a 3:1 numerical superiority, navy probably even 10:1. Even though I upped my armed forces to about 100 brigades, my army is rather small and I can not rely on tech superiority anymore. The realism&rebalance mod lets the a.i. research army techs sooner.

It obviously helps though that I'm dug in level 4 forts. Further more whenever war breaks out I make sure to have the best defensive generals at the front.

Enewald said:

You killed a lot of French men... poor women.

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Poor German women, rather. Now that we own most of France, we finally have the most beautiful women of Continental Europe on the market.

Just when I finished preparations for the next French conquest, I gained a CB on Russia. I had unfinished business there anyways, so I took the chance and the state.

Five years later another CB on Russia. I had almost dow'ed them when Austria all of a sudden invaded Russia. So I did something especially heinous:
1. I granted Austria and her allies military access
2. Waited for Austria to destroy the entire Russian army

Then I dow'ed Russia and grabbed two more states, just short of the BB-limit. Austria was even cooler than me, they grabbed three states. Something's fishy there though. Despite annexing 3 states, Austria's infamy was a mere 7! They couldn't have had more than one CB. Does the a.i. cheat this blatantly?

Russia couldn't control all the revolutions any longer and several minors gained independence. The same fate overcame the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. This could be the beginning of both great empires' end.



Finally the thirst for social reforms caught up with my empire. When 500.000 rebels formed, I thought I'd better throw them a bone. Trinket pensions solved the problem for a while. Recently I had to up the pensions one more step. I can afford it though. My treasury is now at over 7 million.

Germany is still number 1 in the world and even though Britain is overly aggressive in Asia (snatched up big chunks of China), my lead increases each year.

thatguy said:

Last I checked, Sweden was still independent.

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Hence I limited it to "continental Europe"! The most beautiful European women I've seen was in Denmark. Dutch women are also mighty fine.