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.