Det er typisk norsk å være best: A Norwegian AAR

[Gear]

Det er typisk norsk å være best: A Norwegian AAR

Hello. This is my first AAR. I noticed that there weren’t any Norwegian AARs here (according to the LibrAARy at least) so I decided to do one. I haven’t really played any Vicky for months and have just installed version 1.04, so we’ll see how this goes.

Version: 1.04
Difficulty: Hard/Aggressive
Personal rules:
1) No cheating
2) No exploits
3) No changing of government whatsoever
Goals:
1) Restore Norway to its original territories (Greenland, Iceland, Bohus (Karlstad province), Jämtland and maybe Vinland, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Normandie if I feel lucky)
2) Satellite Denmark and Sweden. Let them suffer the yoke of oppression for once.
3) As the title suggests, win the game.

Historical justification of Norway being an independent country, also called a very brief history lection:

On May 17, 1814 the Norwegian constitution is signed and Norway declares herself an independent country with the Danish crown prince Christian Fredrik as king, but the great powers started to meddle as Norway had been promised to Sweden for their part in the war against Napoleon. In November the Norwegians gave up and accepted Swedish sovereignty. Carl Johan (the soon to be king of Sweden, and the leader of the campaign in Norway) didn’t go so far as to annex the country, but instead changed the constitution a bit, making (among other things) the king of Sweden also the king of Norway.

During this period Norway was largely independent. The only institution not existent was the foreign one (I believe this is the only thing satellites lack in Vicky). They did have the right to have consulates in other countries in the constitution, but Stortinget didn’t use it to save money.

Norway January 1, 1836

[Gear]

Overview 1836:

Factories:
Lumber mill in Akershus

Main exports:
Fish
Timber
Lumber

Parties:
Bondevennene
Interventionism
Protectionism
Moralism
Lim. Citizenship
Anti Military

Embedsmennene (Ruling Party)
Laissez Faire
Free Trade
Pluralism
Lim. Citizenship
Pro Military

First impression
Norway is poor and sparsely populated. Has no military or navy, which acctually can work in my advantage as I don't have to pay upkeep. The start with absolutely no resourses in the stockpile, exept for som reason 5 machine parts. They are also a sattelite of Sweden. All in all things could be better, but they could also be worse much worse.

[hasskugel]

Are you limiting yourself to Norway's historical possessions? It seems like it would be hard to be number one if you did that.

[Walter Model]

I would recommend you not to invade Ireland, for then you will have the British monster upon you.

[coz1]

This will be interesting. I look forward to seeing what you can do with Norway. You are right, I don't recall seeing an AAR on them before. Good luck.

[Gear]

The first installment will have to wait until tomorrow, something unexpected came up.

[Kamillentee]

Exellent!

I like your personal rules! They will provide a very interessting AAR!

[superman]

I've never tried playing as Norway but who knows? Maybe it turns out to be playable?
Good luck

[King of Men]

Good luck with this, it looks interestingly impossible.

[Gear]

Instalment One

Where to begin?

Norway has 6000£ in the bank for some reason, but nothing else. I decide that The money is immediately spent on good heath care reforms as I need more people. This gives me a debt of 1700 which is quite much when your daily income is around 4, I only fund the program at minimum however. Of course with a Laissez Faire government in place I couldn’t change any social reforms, so the first thing I did was to set Bondevennene as the ruling party, and banning Embedsmennene (I hate parties which won’t allow me to raise tariffs to max).

Taxes are raised to 49%, education is set to max, crime fighting is set at 50% to try to keep corruption in check. Besides my population is so low that it doesn’t cost more than 1.8£/day.

I immediately start hoarding resources for a possible expansion of the lumber mill and for the upcoming war with Sweden. As I keep slipping into debt this has to be done in steps. In the first war the plan is to destroy Sweden’s armies and rack up some prestige and then satellite them in a second war.

On December 8, 1838 3 regiments of cavalry with hussars are built, which results in a debt of 4200£. Defence and Crime fighting is set at minimum to make enough money to survive the interest.

A few days later some smugglers are caught and I hang them and seize the cargo. As I have no need for the things they had I will sell them and get some much needed money. Hey, any money is good money.

Then on January 15, 1839 the absolute worst thing that could happen happened. Russia declared war! And they are marching into Norway with 10k men. This wasn’t part of my plan at all. There is one positive thing about their timing though, and that is that I’m still allied to Sweden. The worst thing is that the army isn’t going to be done training until May 8.

The way I see it I have 4 options:
I can Neville myself out of it
I can quit
I can try to give them Finnmark
I can purchase 40 small arms and canned food and increase the mobilization pool and mobilize them and meet the Russians in Trondhjem.

Number 1 & 2 is out of the question. Number 3 is flawed as I don’t know if they’ll accept. So debt here I come! Some sick voices in my head is calling for me to try and grab a chunk of Finland, but I thing I can repress them for now.

Unfortunately my prestige is too low and it seems that Russia also wants to increase her armed forces and the import of small arms is stopped.

A new plan is formed. What if I managed to get some clipper ships and make some transports? Is it possible to sail over to St. Petersburg and capture it and thereby forcing them to accept a white peace? But alas no clipper ships were available on the world marked and I raise 30k new troops instead.

On April 20, 1840 things took a turn for the worse when Denmark joined the war against us, and on September 26 Sweden chickened out giving several provinces to both Russia and Denmark.

When all seemed to be lost I offered the provinces of Bodø and Hammerfest to the Russians, but they refused. Against these odds I saw only one solution and consulted Norway’s top voodoo-scientists which invoked the Rite of the Cheetah.

Hammerfest is lost:


I finally have an army:


Trying to fight back:


Reinforcements are on the way:


Sweden has withdrawn from the war:


Finally:


The economy is struggling after the war:


Any tips on what to do next? I feel that the Russians are just going to declare war on me every 5 years. And what about the economy? Shall I sell everything and cut back on spending to pay off my debt or should I just go bancrupt? It's not like I have any factories to lose.

[superman]

Don't go bankrupt, it is for sissies

I suggest you raise tax for the poor, cut back on eduaction and hope for the best. If this however still don't work, you'll have to go bankrupt

[coz1]

Sounds like a pretty rough start. I applaud you for taking the hard road. I only hope it works out. Keep pushing through it though. Maybe try to ally with Russia if that's the concern. Can't help more than that, I am afraid. But I am interested to see how you get out of the mess, if you are able to do so. Good luck.

[stnylan]

Good start. Damned russia, you'll need more than a little luck I think to make ground there.

[hasskugel]

Good work on not just giving up! I probably would have given up and reloaded.

[Gear]

Instalment 2

Okay, new plan. I tried playing a few years with paying my debt, but that was so extremely boring and it wouldn’t make a good AAR. Unless you of course like reading about how I spent 20 years paying of debt. There was only one thing to do. That was to go bankrupt with a big finish.

Norway had 66000 men in their army. The Swedes had 3200 men, 32000 when fully mobilized. Norway wanted independence. A new plan was formed. Instead of just making Sweden vassals, they should be incorporated into Norway. Quite clearly they can’t protect themselves.

War was declared December 4, 1840, resulting in a loss of 100 prestige. Prestige can be regained.

I also increased the mobilization pool sometime during the war.

On September 7, 1842 I made peace with Sweden forcing them to secede Östersund, Falun, Karlstad, Västerås and Örebro. National debt had reached an all time low of almost 51k.

A new target needed to be acquired. It was found in Africa. Both Morocco and Tunisia were owned by uncivs. There was no boats available to bring soldiers down there. The construction of 3 clipper transports were ordered and a Swedish pop was promoted to help reinforce the army. The war had depleted Norway’s population by almost half a million. Fortunately the new land in Sweden made up for this, but not by enough.

Mobilization was then increased to 8 divisions.

Then on March 4 1843, I finally went bankrupt. Time to make this country economically viable. It wasn’t until late June that I finally made a profit again. The plan of snatching some land in Africa was put aside for a later time when I had an economy.

During this period a debt of 6000£ was gained. It turns out that I had forgotten to turn off import of some things when I went bankrupt, like small arms, various luxury things intended for industrial purposes, etc…

The funny thing is that the first thing Sweden did after I ended the war with them was to start increasing our relations.

Pictures will follow soon.

[Quirinus308]

Great start so far. You've certainly picked a tough nut to crack. I love any AAR that is wiling to take the good with the bad (i.e. Russia). I think your next goal should be to...

I really don't know where you should go from here.

[superman]

Oh and I really love to see Russian bear's ass kicked This is my favourite AAR rite now, waitin for the pics

[stnylan]

Bankruptcy is not necessarily something to be afraid of, and you seem to have survived it pretty well.

[Arntf]

Hot damn! A Norwegian Vicky AAR!! Looks interesting too. I eagerly await further instalments...

[Gear]

And now for the pictures:

The invasion starts:


The north is captured easily:


My first defeat in this war, only one of these three regiments survived:


The final battles:


Demoralized Swedish troops wandering from Gävle to Stockholm, and vice versa, always losing the battles:


Seconds before the entire Swedis army is destroyed:


Norway after the war:


I don't know when the next update will be, as I have a lot of school work to do at the moment, but I'll try to play some after I get back from work and have written an essay I need to write.