PrussiAAR: Herrliche Zeiten (realism & rebalance mod)

The German Kaiser has one slogan in life: Zero infamy is a crime against Germany's ambitions.
After evaluating the options for expansion, a first victim was found: Denmark. We have a casus belli for Slesvig-Holstein and can afford to grab some territory while still keeping infamy manageable.

If not for Denmark's navy blocking my invasion of Odense, I would have grabbed Denmark's colonies as well. There's nothing to be told about the first blitzkrieg. We secured our claim and the Danish region of Jylland (which is about 2/3 of Denmark, lol).


Meanwhile we have finished research of early railroads and started the tech medicine. Furthermore the Kaiser ordered 2 man'o'wars and 3 frigates. Next time Denmark must die.

Other option: Conquest of some uncivilized nation. Either way: There will be blood!

The post Denmark-war years were calm and used to industrialize and further research army techs. After all, I intended to keep the truce with Denmark but nothing more. When the truce ended in March 1843 I quickly took possession of Odense, Copenhagen (which put up a good fight) and Iceland.

When Denmark agreed to release Holstein as a puppet and hand me over Iceland and Greenland, I signed a peace deal. Denmark is henceforth out of my interest. I'm thinking about maintaining a friendship in the future. No hard feelings, right?

Iceland and Greenland are more for megalomanic reasons. I always grab them and fortify them to hell in HoI. They just look so damn impressive on the map. Hey, I never said I was gonna be reasonable, did I? This AAR is intended to be truly... wilhelminic...

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While still ending the fight in Denmark, Austria attacked me (late 1843)!
Needlessly to say, I spent the first year barely surviving. My armies were spread thin on the Austrian border as half of my men were still in Denmark and a considerable force on the French border.

I made a decision: Give up ground and retract my newly mobilized units. It was painful to see my allies getting overrun, but it was necessary in order to avoid annihilation. When my forces turned green (organization-wise...) I launched the counter-offensive against hand-picked Austrian troops. I only struck where the Austrians were weak/disorganized and struck hard with few yet formidable strokes.

1844 was a micromanagement hell. I had to pay close attention to every German minor state and every battle, unit movement and event spamming. Nonetheless, the strategy of battering the Austrian forces before conquering territory was a huge success.


I spent most of 1845 occupying empty Austrian terrain, ever increasing my warscore. Finally Austria caved into my demands. They had to cede Bohemia to Prussia and admit Prussian hegemony over Germany.

That means: I only have to get Bavaria and one other state into my sphere and then I can unify Germany. Both states aren't in another GP's SoI, so it should happen fairly soon.

This is the map of Europe in 1845. Keep in mind that I also control Greenland and Iceland. With an infamy of 21.33, I'll have to stay under the radar for a while. Thinking about snatching Egypt mid-term.

Nikolai said:

What about Elsass-Lothringen?

What is your BB value now, btw? You are in for a tough ride if you go above 25 BB too soon.

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BB is 21.33 (just lookin' at the pics, are we?)
Don't worry about BB-wars, Bismarck is my wingman. He'll make sure that I won't fuck shit up. Every campaign is planned around BB-value.

@Elsass-Lothringen
Hmm, I have a claim on it, right? That'd be something to do while I wait for the BB to drop. I have already prepared a level 2 fort on the single border province with France. Plan: Dig in there and bleed out them frogs.

@Forming Germany
I kinda fell in love with the Prussian blue. Would hate to turn it into grey. What shall I do? Not form Germany or paint Germany blue?

@Colours close-up
How do you guys think the colours look zoomed in? I like Austria, Prussia, Niedersachen, Baden and Bayern. The others not so much.

Rensslaer said:

Was the country color a mod someone else made, or did you just change it yourself? I miss Prussian Blue!

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Just check my signature (Vicky2Vintage), that'll lead you to my map mod.

Quick update: I'm currently knee deep in a war against France which attacked me over the Rheinland region. When Belgium joined, I was in real trouble. More in the next update!

My preparations for the annexation of Elsaß-Lothringen were underway. The plan: Dig in my level 2 fort on the single bordering province and let them bleed out.

Before I could declare war, the French did me the favour. Their wargoal: Rheinland. My victorious army was overly optimistic as it became clear fairly soon that these French troops were nothing to f*ck with.


The early battles were a mixed bag. Losses mounted on both sides and I had to accept that at this stage, forts and defence are worthless. It's all about numbers and organization, both of which France was superior in.

My mobilized forces made up half of my army (about 50 units each) while my allies (German minors incl. Bavaria) beefed up our combined military score to 300 against the French, Swiss, Belgian 200.

Oddly enough France fielded 200 brigades, compared to my 83 (I had lost quite a few). The first year of the war brought to the brink of total defeat with French forces occupying all of western Prussia.

Then I switched my strategy:
I would withdraw my forces as far as necessary to regain full strength and organization. Then I shuffled units in and out of battle, so the engaged forces were always well organized. The battered withdrawn units were transported to the rear to recover. This didn't even demand as much micromanagement as I had feared. The effect however was devastating on the French forces.


Battles soon started to look like the above regularly and the unstoppable French Juggernaut turned into a minor military power that no longer posed a threat to me. I reconquered each region and then started occupying France.

Although my infamy was still over 16, I had luck on my side in form of a random casus belli on Belgium which granted me Wallonia. With France I settled for annexation of Elsaß-Lothringen and humiliation.

This is how the map looks like in 1850 now:

Dewirix said:

How well does Vicky 2 do at simulating the extremely unstable political situation France faced?

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No idea, but we can all guess the answer, can't we?

Next step: Unification
This was the most tedious and least fun step. Constant monitoring of a dozen nations in my SoI while trying to add the missing nations. The worst problem was Hanover which became a Great Power!!! WTF???
You can't get another GP into your SoI. So I had to merc them soundly and get them to admit my hegemony. This caused Hanover to bleed prestige and drop out of the top8. Of course then I had to improve our damaged relations before getting them into my SoI. Anyways, first I formed the NGF which eliminated at least 8 minors. Unifying Germany was easy thereafter.

As expected, the next French invasion came with the end of our truce. Interestingly enough, Austria stayed peaceful all that time. The 2nd Franco-Prussian war was uneventful and rather dull. My infamy was too high to make any demands. So it ended with the status quo after some bloodshed. I didn't even mobilize.


In 1863 though, the 3rd Franco-Prussian war broke out (again French aggression) with my infamy low enough to annex two states. France came balls out, punching deep holes into my defences. I eventually mobilized to stem the tide and obliterate the French threat once and for all. France fielded 220 brigades against my 86 (which became close to 300 after mobilization). I annihilated my enemies and demand the two bordering states, essentially crippling France for good.

The badly battered France was now easy prey for Spain which seeked to reconquer lost possessions. Since I expect more to come from France I decided to dedicate 20 infamy points into annexing French regions, instead of the initially planned conquest of Egypt. I reckoned: Eliminating France as a threat is more vital than colonial adventures.

badger_ken said:

Congratulations!
Your casualty ratios in the last war are amazing - almost 10:1 at Spa, 11:1 at Metz (230K casulaties! +44 war score!).

Was this all due to organizational level differences? This is what I would expect from Prussia vs. an unciv, not vs. La France.

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Thanks!
I must say, the balance of military efficiency has shifted in my favour. I always keep all army techs at maximum. Priority on the defensive, organization and the military tactics branch. Attack and arty are the last branches as I try to bleed the enemy out in defensive battles. Still, France constantly poses a great threat mainly because of her numerical superiority.

Reasons for the newly found overwhelming success:

1. army composition
- 1 cav.
- 1 hussar
- 1 engineer
- 2 arty
- 2 guard
- 4 infantry

That's a typical medium sized army. I pump out about 5-6 of these as my main force. This composition works well offensively and defensively. A jack of all trades.

2. Shuffling armies in and out of battle - only fight green
Prepare defensive positions near the border. Use favourable terrain and build additional forts. Don't mind giving up ground, you'll take it back soon enough. Keep the frontline as short as possible. Man every province in the frontline (unless it's a very long border). Keep reserve units behind the frontline.
Once a front unit is engaged in battle, monitor the floating casualty numbers and their colour status (once they hit yellow, it'll soon be time to shuffle them out of the rotation).

When your units start to suffer more and more casualties and their org. drops, bring in a fresh unit. Once the fresh reserves have arrived, withdraw the battered army. Repeat until the enemy is toast.

If you have a small army like I do (I mean roughly 80 brigades is nothing for the number 1 GP in the world), you will sometimes have to give up your frontline and retreat deep into your territory. The Frenchies sometimes drove me back all the way to Berlin. But that's okay, you can still wear them out. Ideally you want to have a larger army so you can follow above strategy closely.

Ivir Baggins said:

Why's Lux still alive?

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Hmm... do I have a claim on Luxembourg? Otherwise it would cost 20 infamy to conquer.