Brazilian Errors

[Heretic]

Brazil – A Tragedy of Errors

Brazil as a learning experience – the AAR.
I intend to provide a few brief snapshots of what I learned playing Brazil.
I have pretty much got the hang of EU, EU2 and HOI, having played since EU first came out.
I thought it would be difficult to adjust to Victoria, and by golly I was right.
I am now I think beginning to feel a little more in control, so it has worked reasonably.

Difficulty: Normal
AI: Weakling (sue me, but I wanted to try & get the economy sorted out first)

[Heretic]

1842
Following current recommendations, I economise on Army & Navy maintenance, also on crime fighting. I do, however, fund education profusely.
Wrongly thinking that it would double profitability, I expanded tobacco and coffee plantations all over the country. They appeared to be my best source of income. I thought it would be really good, so I expanded them twice.
I did set up a glass factory in Rio, which was then difficult to fill due to lack of goods to educate pops to craftsman or clerk status.
Income of about 20 per day is reasonable, although this really is mostly from tobacco and coffee sales.
I acted to ally with my neighbours, improving relations with, and allying with Venezuela, Peru and Columbia.
So far, so good, although I can’t help feeling that there is a lot going on ‘under the hood’ that I don’t know about.

[Stroph1]

"Brazil – A Tragedy of Errors" I hope it is not this. I know my first few games were a tragedy and I would never have had the courage to write them up. I applaud your bravery!

[sliver legion]

Wow, you have guts. If I wrote up one of my terrible games up into an AAR I would be thrown out of the fourm. Well anyway good um bad luck which ever one you want.

[Heretic]

ok, apologies for the severe lack of updates..
I have now been a little more motivated to move things on,
so here is my next little installment..

1843
Some expansion of RGOs completed (that’s Resource Gathering Operation -= it took me ages to find out what the abbreviation was for)
Army pretty pitiful, since funding is at minimum. 53 spare manpower, though, so plenty of scope to reinforce.
Education now on maximum, so income is now down to only £4 per day.
Glass factory making about £2 per day, not even full of craftsmen etc, I hadn’t really latched on to buying all the resources needed to promote POPs at this point.

[Heretic]

ok, I'm going to keep on rolling with this one, I appreciate it may not be bustling with interest, but there y'go.

1848
Ok, things have moved on a little.
I have scraped up to ‘great power’ status.
How?
Cameroon.
Only three provinces, and so not too expensive to set up.
By saving up lots of my income, and buying the relevant resources, progress has been made.
Also, a cement factory and a fabric factory have now been set up.
I aimed to use POPs from RGOs that were not too profitable, and in states that were not too big, in order to keep railroad costs down, and also minimise loss of income from good RGOs (like tobacco).
After all that, the fabric factory only makes a profit of £0.10 per day. I staffed it with 3 craftsmen POPs, and hadn’t managed to put any clerks in there. I guess I hadn’t heard of the clerk bonus.
Cemet factory actually not quite complete yet, so I can’t tell you how well or badly it ran in terms of profit. Since I don’t actually produce coal, I guess it is also not a real winner.

Alliance now down to Peru and Columbia, with Venezuela wavering in and out. No general intention to go to war against my neighbours, so things fairly safe here.

[Heretic]

ah heck, I just wrote a few years up, so no chance for comments in between posts.
never mind.

1856
Elections now occurring thanks to some reform, which now means I also have a little debt. Sadly I didn’t realise that answering the pop-ups in the election campaign would alter the outcome. Since I didn’t know what the difference between the political parties was, this wasn’t too much of a problem.
I ended up with the conservaties, so no problem on the tax front.

On June 15 1849, we declared colonial war on Egypt, because they appeared to be pretty weak.
Initial battles in Fazgoli and Massua, sea battles in Bab-El-Mandeb. Liberation of Massua in March 1850 closely followed by a rebel uprising. I suspect that was just unfortunate.
Lost battles in Khatum and Adaba, probably due to small army size and lack of reinforcement.
More victories later, thanks to beginning to get the hang of attacking in force.
Quite a few provinces taken, but then subsequently lost again – I didn’t manage to pin down all of the Egyptian armies.
Peace on December 30th, 1851, a few provinces gained, but the war was fairly messily executed.

Luckily I now have a bit more cash on hand to take advantage of events like ‘library opened’, which for a country with a low literacy rate is really useful. Sadly I didn’t have enough for a new military academy – I am not really focussed on trying to get good quality leaders for my armies.

Cyprus and Crete liberated as satellites – I like the idea of having a staging point in the eastern Mediterranean, but I have so many useless provinces that two more seem like a bit of a burden. It is also nice to have a satellite ‘just because’.

Five dragoon divisions commissioned – although national troops, not natives, I hadn’t got the hang of press ganging my colonies. Also, Brazil is pretty good on national manpower.

Lots of expansion of RGOs going on – I didn’t know that there is not much point taking them past level 2 unless you have a really populous province.

Technology development going ok, I went for a bit of culture at first, then a bit of economic, and after that some industrial. Early railroad reached in 1855, since I wasn’t rushing in that direction.

[Nerfix]

Having ambitions in africa, eh?

[Heretic]

yeah, like I said at the start, it was a 'learning game' and Africa seemed to have some of the easiest 'wins' out there. As you can see, Brazilian hegemony from the atlantic to the indian ocean isn't really hapenning.

1862

Around the world, Sardinia attempted to ‘Unify or Die’ and Denmark managed to take a few provinces off Hanover, after previously taking one off Prussia over the Sleivig question. Denmark was supported in those two wars by the UK and Sweden respectively. Prussia later apparently humiliated by Denmark, loosing Swienmunde.
Russia did well in an early war against the Ottomans, but lost out badly in the Crimea war, loosing ground and also being humiliated (despite having the UK on their side).

Colonial war now declared on Tripoli. Annexed in September 1860, war started in March 1859, so not too slow. Progress this time was somewhat better than against Egypt, perhaps helped by Tripoli’s lack of a meaningful army.

Regular clothes factory built in Parahiba – perhaps I will manage to staff it properly in order to make some cash? Glass factory in Rio expanded, also railways set up across the whole of the Rio state, with a few extra sneaking down the coast. Sheep ranches expanded all over Tripoli, for no very good reason considering the lack of manpower.

Trade posts also constructed in Yaonde and Bamenda – continuing to move towards claiming African colonies.

[Nerfix]

You're doing better than me with conquests... I once got Brazil to the 5th rank but I didn't figth a single war... Also, I should have colonized africa in that game... It wasn't a smart idea to colonize the small islands near Japan...

At least you aren't repeating my mistakes!

[Heretic]

Hmm,
thanks Nerfix, for that you deserve another update.
I;ll let you into a secret - I got the game up to 1912 and stopped it a while ago, for reasons that will become clear.. I am now, however, minded to finish it off for completeness sake.

1868

I try to start playing to my production strengths, and build a furniture factory in Marahaoe. The availability of craftsmen & clerks is still very poor. I chose the state because it had few provinces, and should be simple to put railways across. A steel factory, a winery and a canned food factory were constructed in other states. None of these factories was ever seriously profitable, although the steel one did make a bit of a showing.

UK steals big swathes of Mexico. Denmark manages to propose a Scandinavian union to Sweden, I was quite surprised, since I wasn’t expecting that (unlike Italy & Germany). Speaking of Italy, Sardinia managed to loose some provinces to Austria, so unification seems far off. CSA managed to loose a few provinces in the mid-west to the USA, but did not get wiped out in the ‘first round’ of the civil war.
Spain had problems with an independent Catalonia, although two short wars and they were brought back under the rule of Madrid. Austro-Prussian war in 1866, with only Mecklenburg and Hanover aiding Prussia. That war didn’t really get wrapped up until 1870, with Austria taking some of southern Prussia. By that time the Prussians were also tangling with the French.

Right at the end of 1863, I found another weak opponent to stomp on, Abu Dhabi, annexing them in June 1864. My military strategy was mainly based around attacking the weak, since I was pretty sure I would do badly against a bigger opponent. I wasn’t really aiming for ‘good’ resources provinces, so my income per POP, always poor was now a little worse.

Heretic

[Nerfix]

Do you have convoys running?

[Heretic]

Hey, give me some credit, yes, I worked that one out in around 1845.

1874

More development needed on the army front, with five divisions of native dragoons deployed in late 1870. Five more followed in 1872. I don’t think I had got the hang of only deploying with army maintenance at full, so lots of wasted manpower here.

By late 1871, France had annexed Nassau, Braunshweig, Lippe-Detmold and Hesse-Darmstadt, so it was pretty clear that Prussia was not doing a good job defending them. Prussia finally managed peace in 1872, loosing a few provinces of the Rhineland.

In 1873, for some reason I felt it would be handy to declare war on the CSA. The reason was that they had been humiliated by the USA, had a not too big military, and were civilised, so I though I could rack up some prestige. Columbia, Cyprus, Crete, Venezuela and Peru all joined in the fun. I had prepared by getting military access from Columbia, and then moving all my armies to Coro, in order to cut down the shipping time to Florida.

Tampa, Tallahassee and Charleston were all landing sites, defended against CSA attack, and then liberated. CSA counter attacks subsequently destroyed an (un-reinforced) army in Tallahassee. I progressed west from Florida, happily liberating, but the CSA managed to counter and free Charleston. I still hadn’t finished ferrying all my armies over, since I never got round to building a significant transport capability. I started to land armies onto the western edge of the CSA, to speed up the progress of liberation. After finishing off the west, I then cleared up the provinces in the east, and in March 1874, CSA accepted peace. I took land adjacent to Texas, although not all the way to Florida, also war indemnities, since I could do with the cash.

Later in March, Peru declared war on Argentina. I had some serious debt to take care of, so I felt I had to dishonour the alliance. Peru ended up loosing badly, I think they were a lreally counting on our support. Revolts in some of my African lands still troubling.

[Atomcreator]

Interesting. I've only just completed my 2nd game having been trashed as greece. In my brazil tutorial I managed to get to be No 3 in the rankings due to prestige ( what else ), but never even occured to me to look for colonies. Guess I had my south american inward looking hat on. Just got obsessed with my own lands.
Think I'll have a look round on my next game.

[Heretic]

Thanks, Atomcreator, I did pretty well out of the colonies, in that I got lots of prestige, but my 'early lead' in that front got eroded as time went on.


1882

A quick word on crime control – I started off with pretty low funding, and didn’t really raise it much. Each new area brought under my control therefore had a brief crime wave, and then stayed permanently crime ridden after I took it over.

An additional lumber mill and a paper mill completed around 1876, trying to build on the one type of factory that seemed to be profitable. More railways laid down to support industrialisation, with some aiming for the more profitable RGOs like tropical wood. Brazil is pretty big, though, and my budget didn’t stretch to much, so railways spread very slowly. I also put a liquor distillery in Sao Paulo, since it had lots of POPs and was small enough to put railways in easily. By 1878 I had expanded the steel and clothes factories, since they were making some money. By 1880 I had even splashed out on a steamer shipyard in Bahia.

For some reason I put an ammunition factory in Louisiana, I think it was because there were skilled workers standing idle. It was never a success, even though I did produce my own sulphur.

A new mission in Africa finished in 1880, I think I really got distracted from putting colonial buildings down at a decent rate. Also they were actually quite expensive for me.

Peru and Argentina had another war, although this time, Argentina brought the UK into it. The UK walked off with large parts of Bolivian Peru. Argentina then got left to face Peru and Chile on it’s own, and ended up paying indemnities and loosing land to Chile. I kept well out of in and concentrated on improving relations all round.

[Heretic]

1886

In late 1882, I felt it was time to come back for a little more of Egypt. The Ottomans were eating the other end, so I realised I would have to get on with it if I was going to have an easy enemy instead of a serious one. The native dragoon regiments stomped over Egypt, taking delta and then the holy land, since they hadn’t yet lost that. In mid 1883, Egypt was still rejecting frankly generous peace offers – I was trying to keep a neat border. It took until October to take everything, and I annexed them. This was something I previously didn’t want to do, since it gave me a border with the Ottomans. However, I thought I’d risk it.

July 1884 saw the Ottomans taking some parts of mainland Italy from the Two Sicilies, although France and Sardinia also gained in the deal. Later, France took it’s own peace deal, taking some more of the Two Sicilies, although they also gave Sicilian land to Sardinia

State & government was researched later in 1884, and frankly I was completely clueless about the choices. I chose out of personal preference, going for Establishment, Anti-clericalism, Nepotism & Meritocracy. As a result of all that (I thought) the aristocrats withdrew to their castles and manors in mid-1885.

December 1st 1885, the expected happened, the Ottomans declared war on us, obviously wanting Egypt. Unfortunately they had Prussia to help them, although given Prussia’s previous war record, I was hopeful.

Akra, Baalbek & Kerbela were lost to the Ottomans in close succession in February 1886, they also beat my armies in the field. Later in March 1886, my fleet met an advance party of the Prussian navy. As I mentioned before, I never had enough cash to really improve the navy. It was wiped out. Palmyra, Dimashq & Bayrut fell in May. I had been making Brazil offers for a while, but only in July 1886 was I able to check out of the war. I lost Jerush, Kaf, Kerbela, Palmyra, Ar Ruthbar, Baalbek & Akra. Not really good land, all in all. I didn’t mind too much, although obviously I was not equipped to take on the big boys in the army department.

Our crime policy bore fruit in 1886, with a stock market crash.
I attempted to revive my treasury, and also avoid aggression from the USA by selling off my provinces in the US to the USA. They seemed like a bit of a distraction.

[Heretic]

1891

Plenty of revolts over my African lands thanks to war exhaustion & nationalism. I appear to have a taste for war, since colonial war is declared against Nejd in June 1887, and Hedjaz in October. Nejd promptly went backrupt at the start of the next year. Hedjaz were annexed in May 1888. The USA had occupied northern Nejd so I had to settle for the southern parts only, they annexed the rest. This was all because I had foolishly sold them a part of Dubayy. This of course meant they had a new border, so they started vigorously expanding. Note: never sell provinces to give a great power a new border unless you want them to expand that way.

Againm my crime policy resulted in a stock market crash in April and September 1888 and December 1891. If I was actually making lots of money, or had an idea about what my income should be, I might have tried to keep a lid on crime. As it is, it felt like it was too late to try and tackle it.

For some reason at the start of 1889, I liberated Tripoli. I think I realised that the provinces were a bit of a drag on my economy, or something like that. Lots of my north African provinces revolting, rebel scum abound. In May 1890, I liberated Egypt too. I was getting worried about the Ottomans coming back for more. I didn’t count on Egypt no longer including the holy land, making it very difficult for me to defend.

CSA lost yet another war with the USA, but were still standing. The first four steamer transport divisions were deployed in 1891. Tripoli’s independence was tested in 1891, as the Ottomans declared colonial war. I dishonoured the alliance, since I couldn’t face the war, my military still in tatters from the last one. I kept trying to improve relations with the USA.

[Heretic]

1898

Tripoli lost a low of land, but stayed on the map after the war ended in 1892. I am not sure of the logic, but for similar reasons I freed Nejd and the Hedjaz as satellites.

August 1893 “Stationary State happened to us”, I am really not sure what this one means. Apparently it was a result of some of the state & government choices, I think.

November 1893, and Oman was next on my hit list. A trouble free war, with the Omani fleet sunk off the coast of Zanzibar in 1894, and the nation annexed in November of that year. I liberated Oman directly afterwards, so that I kept the African coast, and left them on the Arabian peninsula.

Worryingly, the UK continued it’s expansion into South America by joining Argentina in war against Paraguay, and taking a whole slew of territory.

Two more stock market crashes in 1895

July 1897, and my opportunistic streak led me to declare war on Mecklenburg, since for some reason they were deeply short on prestige. I persisted until all of Mecklenburg’s allies, Hannover and Hamburg were occupied, and then picked off the peace deals one by one. Satellite status for all of them. I seemed to like an annex followed by a release. I wonder whether that works in terms of BB-mathematics?

[Heretic]

1902

Colonisation now sprang to mind as a way to benefit from my slightly increased income. I wasn’t aiming for more industrialisation, since I though the my POPs were being employed effectively. Also, the chance of being able to grant statehood to any colonies were minimal, since I had massively expanded the RGOs in the homeland.

Another new trading post, this time in Ain Hamed, and some shoring up of alliances in South America see the old century out, that and a whole slew of rebel stomping. My trade post program expands, with Shekka, Taufikia, Talodi & Fashoda all completing later in 1900. This allows me to claim another African colony. Crime quickly spreads into the colony.

Due to my sad naval showing against Prussia (that mighty seafaring nation!) I commission the height of technology, four frigate fleets. Ok, I am very behind in naval technology, but this is not a problem because I am not aware of where I should be.

The new century also brings the next declaration of war from the Ottomans. I really should have avoided eating Egypt like that a few years ago. Due to our various alliances, Venezuela, Cyprus, Crete, Egypt, Nejd, Hedjaz, Oman, Hamburg, Lübeck, Mecklenburg and Holstein join me in war against Ottoman Empire, Prussia, Sardinia and Hannover. Frankly my allies are going to be no use in this war.

Prussia quickly annexes Lubeck, and Mecklenburg cashes out in a peace deal with the Ottomans, saving themselves from pretty certain destruction. I start taking some Ottoman territories, they march into a few of mine. Some of my gains come from landings north of Jerusalem, using Cyprus as a staging point. The landing is with about four divisions, so enough to beat off the single division dribs and drabs marching to the front from Constantinople (or is that Istanbul?)

April 1901, Ottomans annex Nejd, cutting out one of my satellites. May 1901, and the Prussian nacy catches me near Sierra Leone, and beats my fleet back into port. May 1901, and my fleet of four commerce raiders is ready to deploy, perhaps they will help. June 1901, Ottomans take the Hedjaz too. So much for my Arabian possessions.

Warfare moves to Tripoli as I manage to engage the Ottomans near Sirt. A lot of my Arab cavalry divisions have their base there so it is important not to loose it. August 1901 and my new navy trashes the Prussian fleet in the ‘East Canary Basin’. Battles against the Ottomans won in Nefusa, Al Arish and Al Aqaba. Sometime twice, since I fought, moved off to claim a province, and then had to come back to fight the same army again.

January 1902, and the Ottomans annex Oman, I appear to be running low on satellites. Peace offers keep flying out, I buy off Hanover separately, and finally manage a no-tribute peace with the Ottomans in March 1902.

In other news, France declared war on Prussia and their ally Russia. Scandinavia chipped in the help the French. The aggressors were successful after a year of war, with France taking a lot of West Prussia.

[Morpheus506]

This is quite interesting. Crash-and-burn AARs are some of the most entertaining ones (although you actually are doing quite well for yourself). You have any screenies? I want to see how the map's been redrawn around all the Brazilian satellites, and your talk of American expansion in Nejd or thereabouts intrigues me greatly