The Winged Lion attempts to soar and roar - a Persian AAR

**badger_ken** · 24-09-2010 07:19

Welcome to a Perfectly Persian AAR! Why Persia, you may ask? Well,

a) it's a nice change of pace - I've never seen anybody try it.

b) it's a good solid size - it should be possible to do something with it.

c) it's in a part of the world I haven't played until now - that's always nice.

d) Devoted forum readers will know that I just finished augering Mexico into the ground in an earlier AAR - I wanted to try it again, but I hear Mexico/US/CSA will be changing a lot in the Out Any Day Now 1.2 patch, so wanted to try someplace else in the meantime.

and most of all,

e) it has the coolest national symbol in the game! A winged lion wielding a sword!

Beat that! Other countries have winged birds, or lions, but nobody, but nobody, has both!

This will largely be a gameplay/learning AAR. The former because I like gameplay AARs, and learning because I'm not very good at the game

, so we can all learn together.

MODS

None - this is purely vanilla 1.1, which I hope will still work under 1.2

And with that, we're off!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

**badger_ken** · 24-09-2010 07:27

Chapter 1: the initial situation, and opening moves

First things first - let's see the geopolitical situation.

Persia is up against the "sick man of Europe", the Ottoman Empire, to the west (though 'sick' by European standards, it's still a Great Power and far more powerful than Persia, which starts as the 73rd rank power in the world). To the north, there's uncolonizable land (at least by Persia!), and, sadly, a land border with Russia, a much greater threat than the Ottomans. Things get better to the east, where there are an array of other small nations.

My initial plan is to suck up to the Russian Bear as much as possible - I'd be happy to enter their sphere of influence. I would then like to expand to the east, but especially to the west - I want to be in on the feast as the Ottoman Empire decays. My ultimate goal would be to restore the Persian empire to the glory it held before Alexander the Great spoiled everything.

Let's take a look at the domestic situation

Persia is your typical poor country, but a few things to call out:

1) see what I meant about the cool flag?

2) 0 prestige, 0 industry, and 9 army score. Ouch - we start way behind.

3) 5.5% literacy, and only generating 1.16 RP - we start way behind, and aren't making that up quickly. Double ouch.

4) Note that I still get a National Focus - looks like everybody gets one.

5) As an unciv, I get very few diplomats. Yet another problem.

6) One nice touch is that at least my starting army is a decent size - 21 regiments.

7) As seems typical in this game, the middle class in general, and artisans in particular, are very unhappy at the start.

"I'd like Westernization, please - hold the decadence"

I decide that I am going to embrace Westernization as quickly as possible - only this way can we hope to climb back into a power to reckon with. To do this, you need:

This is a pretty tall order. In addition to 5 technologies (and with my rate of research, even level 1 technologies like this take years per technology), but I need 40 prestige (presently i have 0), and 50 military score (presently I have 9).

the Dar-al-Funun

If you look closely at the above screen, you can see that I also have the potential to "Establish the Dar al-Funun". This is described as starting a university system, which seems absolutely perfect for a power intent on westernizing. However, (a) to get it, I need "idealism", a level 2 cultural technology, which will take me something like 18 years to research, and (b) check out the effect!

. For the expenditure of 3600 or so research points, I get 84.75 back, and make everyone in Persia more conscious! I don't think so! Is it just me, or is this a booby prize?

Working on research.

I get one national focus. Given my urgent need to improve my research speed, I decide to promote clergy, in the territory of 'Trabiz' (NW Persia - it's my most popolous).

Even though I have to research 5 techonlogies to westernize, I don't pick one of those 5 for my first one - instead, as seems the consensus in this forum, I do "freedom of trade" - that 50% increase in productivity just makes all the difference, financially.

Import/Export, and issues

The grab above shows my import/export situation, and some of the populace demographics. Three things to note:
(1) my top 3 needs are grain, tea, and tobacco.
(2) I start the game with more people anti-military than pro-military, and more pacifism than jingoism! I don't know if this is unique to Persia, or to uncivs, or what, but the net effect seems to be that my max army size is very low, which will be a big problem as I attempt to Westernize.
(3) The populace is very conservative.

First move: Makran

OK, given that I need prestige, and that I want grain, tea, and tobacco, I cast my covetous eyes to the east. What's that I see?

A one-province unciv, without allies, which produces tea. Sounds perfect! I immediately start moving my armies towards Makran, and DOW them before the end of January.
by July 1836 they allow me to annex them

Note in the above (1) how "Bela" is now a lovely Persian taupe, and (2) how my prestige is now up to 10 - 10 down, 30 to go!

The bad news is that this little adventure has already cost me 20 infamy - I am already near the bad-boy limit! Sigh. So instead I turn to....

Other stuff

First, I happily accept the "wind of westernization", which gives me +10% to research rate at the cost of 0.1 pop militancy, and which unleashes a regular drizzle of western military advisors, all of which I accept.

Second, I start the slow process of raising my relation with Russia every time I get to 3 diplomats (I always keep 1 in hand for DOWing, just in case). In March 1837 I grant them military access, as well - the net effect is that in the first years they fight Austria (twice), and leave me alone. Yay!

Waiting to leave the infamy penalty box

So after this brief and glorious beginning, I twiddle my thumbs from July 1836 until November 1842. The only thing I do of note is probably not that wise, as
I agree to a 3-way alliance with Kalat (roughly Pakinstan, and Bokhara, in the hope that some local wars will break out and let me swoop in.

Nothing ever happens, though.

While I twiddle my thumbs, others do not - the most notable change, from my point of view, is that in 1842

"Panjab" (northern India - the "1" above) gets munched on from the south by the UK, and from the west by Afghanistan

That's where we are in June 1843 when .....

I finally finish Freedom of Trade, and start raking in the bucks, and

The UK DOWs Afghanistan - I decide it's time to leave the penalty box... in the next post!

**Tommy4ever** · 24-09-2010 07:39

Winged lions are pussies.

**Dewirix** · 24-09-2010 14:55

Originally Posted by badger_ken

The bad news is that this little adventure has already cost me 20 infamy - I am already near the bad-boy limit!

And since when did you care about that?

Glad to see you returning to AAR-ing so soon after the Mexico game. Persia looks to have pretty good potential once it's properly up and running.

Can't say I completely agree with you on the flag though. A winged lion with a sword? So a normal lion isn't enough, nor is a flying one. It has to have a sword too? Sounds like it's over-engineered to me.

**Alfredian** · 24-09-2010 16:13

There must be some nasty terrain penalties when invading Afghanistan.

**Eber** · 24-09-2010 16:53

I'm enjoying this! Great Britain is getting kinda close eh?

Plus...you're right, the flag is wicked cool.

**Rabid** · 25-09-2010 00:50

Persia is fun to play, the hard part is westernising fast enough that you don't get too boxed in by Russia and the UK (and the OE if they somehow manage to not go into a huge downward spiral all game).

**badger_ken** · 25-09-2010 05:25

thanks for the inputs!

Originally Posted by Dewirix

And since when did you care about [bad boy]?

You wound me, sir

Originally Posted by Dewirix

Can't say I completely agree with you on the flag though. A winged lion with a sword? So a normal lion isn't enough, nor is a flying one. It has to have a sword too? Sounds like it's over-engineered to me.

Originally Posted by Tommy4ever

Winged lions are pussies.

My, such jealousy!

Originally Posted by Alfredian

There must be some nasty terrain penalties when invading Afghanistan.

you said it - see the next post.

Originally Posted by Eber

I'm enjoying this! Great Britain is getting kinda close eh?

Plus...you're right, the flag is wicked cool.

I applaud your discriminating taste

Originally Posted by Rabid

Persia is fun to play, the hard part is westernising fast enough that you don't get too boxed in by Russia and the UK (and the OE if they somehow manage to not go into a huge downward spiral all game).

man, no kidding, Westernization is a long hard slog.

update coming up!

**badger_ken** · 25-09-2010 05:42

Chapter 2: Afghan adventures

It's April 1843, and the UK, not content with snarfing up half of Panjab, has just DOWed Afghanistan. My infamy has ever-so-slowly decreased to the point that I can start getting aggressive again. I decide that backstabbing friendless Afghanistan is a perfect way to start.

I've found, playing Paradox games, that it's usually a good idea to wait until just after the first war ends - otherwise the invaders wind up stepping on each other's feet. Accordingly, I wait until March 1844, when the war ends with the UK grabbing a province ("Afghan Kalat"). I DOW the next day.

My Mexican experience has taught me to be much more careful about war goals

- I can try to conquer Afghanistan, but 20 infamy for 10 prestige seems pretty steep. Instead, my comparison shopping leads me to try for the state of 'Afghan Farrah' (10 infamy, 4 prestige), coupled with 'humiliate' (the semantics are pretty meaningless, but it only costs 1 infamy for 5 prestige). The net result is that instead of paying 20 infamy for 10 prestige, I hope to pay 11 infamy for 9 prestige. Further, I'd really rather not conquer Afghanistan, as I'd rather not have a land border with the UK, thank you very much.

The first piece of bad news I get is that, even though Afghanistan has just been smashed by the UK, they still have a 'green' stack of 21K soldiers

- pretty healthy for this neck of the woods (especially in the mountains) I was expecting a cakewalk.

The second piece of bad news I get is that, as Alfredian predicted, the attrition in the Afghan hills is, literally, a killer - my 10-15K strong armies are whittled down to 2-3K in no time. OUCH!

The saving grace is that despite all this, I do manage to defeat the main Afghan army, despite being outnumbered 3:2 - perhaps they are irregulars?

It's all over but the occupying - the war ends in May 1845:

The net effects are:
(1) my prestige is now up to 24 - 24 down, 16 to go!
(2) my infamy is back up to 21, hovering dangrously close to the 25 bad-boy limit - I'll have to go back to the infamy penalty-box for a while again
(3) Persia has gobbled up western Afghanistan - the area circled in red above.

WAITING TO INHALE

Accordingly, I sit on the sidelines, gradually watching my infamy decrease, and ever-so-slowly working my way towards Westernization, as in 1846 Russia gobbles up parts of Kiva and Bokhara. My folly in allying with Bokhara earlier bites me here, as I lose 10 prestige, outdoing all the gains of the Afghan war. Sigh, live and learn.

the only good news is, better Kiva/Bokhara than me. I am now up to a diplomatic relation of 133 with Russia, I hope this is helping.

I get bit by a bit of an odd game dynamic in 1847, as I have been noticing that, after each successful war, my max army size goes down - I think this is going to be a major problem in my quest to Westernize (remember that one of the requirements is to have an army score of 50). Look at the grab below:

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My max army size, which started the game at 22, is now down to 14 - this is with military spending at about 50% (peacetime levels). My military score, which started the game at 9, is now only up to 22. this might be a big problem.

Perhaps some of this is caused by the lack of enthusiasm of the populace for all things military - note how jingoism just barely beats out "anti-military", and pacifism barely beats out "pro military". Sigh. I'm thinking I might need to institute an election for the lower house, simply so I can get some election events and start nudging the populace towards supporting a bigger army. Stay tuned....

In 1849, my crawl towards Westernization continues, as I get "post-napoleonic thought" - this lets me start building forts, and I start building a chain along the Russian border in the Caucasus - better safe than sorry! I also had heard that forts raise your military score, but I can tell that after building a half-dozen of them this doesn't seem to be the case.

I twiddle my thumbs until 1853, when (warning: shameless plug here!) the
"Victoria 2 advisor" tells me that

my 17 years of influencing clergy in Tabriz are reaching the point of diminishing returns - I switch to influencing clergy in what is now my most populous territory anyways, the province I liberated from Afghanistan.

By April 1855, the Russia and UK are circling ever closer

Russia has colonized the areas to my north, the UK has annexed hapless 'Panjab'.

OUT OF THE PENALTY BOX

It takes me all the way until 1856 to get my infamy back down to a reasonable level - my prestige is now at 25 - I still need 15 more points! I still can't take a 'conquest' infamy hit, I decide to simply Humiliate Kalat (Pakistan) - this won't really hurt them or help me much, except at the cost of a mere 1.7 fame, it will gain me a mere 2 prestige. Not much, but the best I can do, and I'm getting really bored. I DOW them in June 1856, easily smash them, and by November 1856 the war is over, putting my prestige all the way up to 33 (only 7 to go!). My military score, however, is still only at 23.

Also notice how my winning 3 wars, acquiring two provinces, and moving steadily towards Westernization, has moved me from 73rd place all the way to .... 68th. Man, it's like running in quicksand until you can get some industry going....

THE DECISION OF 1857

So there we are in August 1857, when I reach my first real decision point - what to do, if anything, with the Ottomans. The Ottoman empire, which I would dearly love to make the western half of the Persian empire, has been sitting quietly munching it's Turkish cud for most of the game, when suddenly in 1857 a series of things happen to them.

First, they lose Great Power status (to Mexico). Second, they get in a war with Egypt. Third, they get DOWed by the Bear itself - Russia! Fourth, they then immediately throw in the towel against Egypt.

So the question is - should I DOW the Ottoman empire? On the plus side, this is a great opportunity - the Bear is sure to slap them around, and I'd rather fight them while they're distracted. On the minus side, my war goals show no conquest option, and my infamy is still a factor (10). My war goal options are:

1) Cut down to size - requires 50 war score, costs 11 infamy and 7 prestige to declare, and wins me 10 prestige if I get it. No thanks.

2) Humiliate - requires 5 war score, costs 3.4 prestige and 1.7 infamy to declare, and wins me 5 prestige if I get it. No thanks.

3) Free people - requires 16 war score, costs 3.4 prestige and 3.1 infamy to declare, and wins me 2 prestige if I get it. No thanks.

4) Release puppet - requires 5 war score, costs 3.4 prestige and 0.6 infamy to declare, and wins me 5 prestige if I win. Maybe....

This just doesn't seem worth it - the only not-awful war goal available to me is "Release puppet", which would gain me a whole 1.6 prestige (assuming I even get it), and would move my relation with the OE from over 100 to ... well ... something much less.

It seems I should keep my powder dry, boring though it is, and wait a little while longer, at which point I can slap around one of the uncivs to my east, and get the same prestige (or more) a lot easier.

I'll end on this decision point - any inputs?

**Dewirix** · 25-09-2010 09:54

Great update. I had a similar prestige problem when newly-allied Paraguay decided to declare war on Brazil.

The Ottoman declaration of war against Egypt looked like a fairly rational reaction to losing GP status and they did get territory out of it.

Getting them to release Iraq as a puppet could give you a soft target to your west, but I assume you'd still have to fight the Ottomans to release it first. Probably best to push into India while keeping the Brits onside.

**badger_ken** · 25-09-2010 15:06

Originally Posted by Dewirix

Great update. I had a similar prestige problem when newly-allied Paraguay decided to declare war on Brazil.

The Ottoman declaration of war against Egypt looked like a fairly rational reaction to losing GP status and they did get territory out of it.

Getting them to release Iraq as a puppet could give you a soft target to your west, but I assume you'd still have to fight the Ottomans to release it first. Probably best to push into India while keeping the Brits onside.

Thanks for the input!
Re releasing Iraq - that's exactly what I thought about, but the only "release puppet" options are Moldovia and Wallachia - releasing Iraq counts as "free people", and the hefty war score for "free people" coupled with the fact that it loses me prestige even if acheived (huh?) make it a loser.

I'm actually much more worried about the military score requirement - I am less than half of the way to achieving that, and see no way to do so. Any advice?

**coola567** · 25-09-2010 23:35

Just let the Ottoman Empire get destroyed at the hands of the russians. It will weaken both of them and you wouldn't stand to really gain anyting from declaring war on the ottomans

**Serek000** · 26-09-2010 00:29

Maybe use this as a chance to make gains elsewhere, while Russia and the Ottomans are both preoccupied? You could snag Abu Dhabi or somewhere else on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula.

**badger_ken** · 26-09-2010 23:01

Chapter 3: "a day which will live in fame forever"

We left Persia in August 1857, with Persia deciding whether to jump into a Russian war against the Ottomans. I wind up going with my initial thoughts, and stay out of the fight - the 'bang for the buck' just wasn't there.

To my surprise, this turns out to be a wise move, as it turns out the Ottomans were allied with Austria, which joins the war against Russia. This proves too much for the Russians, and in January 1859 the war ends with the Ottomans taking Georgia from Russia!

Wow! Good thing I stayed out.

The only other thing of note during this time is that in late 1857 Kalat (Pakistan - my next target) enters the British SOI! Drat! I am very lucky as they somehow drift out of the SOI, but I take this as a warning sign that I need to move there as quickly as possible. Sadly, my infamy won't yet allow it. My winged lion roars futilely against its cage of infamy.....

I'M YOUR PUPPET

I get consoled slightly in 1860, as I enter the Russian Sphere of Interest! I'm sure there must be a downside to this, but I don't see what it is - the upsides are that (a) Russia can't DOW me, and (b) it will protect me, and (c) my net income seems to immediately go up about 25%. The winged lion purrs....

ENTERING THE HOME STRETCH

In January 1860 I get the "Private Banks" technology. this leaves me only 1 technology to go for Westernization - I start paying more attention to what I need to do to get this done ASAP. To Westernize, you need to meet 3 criteria:

1) a bunch of technologies. All but one ("publishing industry") done, the game estimates I'll get that last one in early 1864.

2) A prestige of 40. I have 35 presently. I oculd get 5 easily by 'Humiliate-ing' someone, but I would much rather 'conquer' Kalat - it's a big hole in my eastern flank, should be an easy conquest, and I want to beat the UK to it. However, I won't have the infamy to DOW them until January 1864. I decide it's worth waiting a few months for this.

3) A military score of 50. I have 23 presently. This is a big problem - I am already at my military max. I decide this is the time to throw financial caution to the winds - I start a crash naval program of men-of-war (nearly useless, but they do move the war score up), coupled with moving the military slider to 100% and building troops as rapidly as I can.

In December 1863, a little earlier than predicted, I get the last needed technology -

however, as noted in the screen grab,
1) my prestige is still at 35 - my infamy is still just barely too high to annex Kalat.
2) My military score, rapidly mounting due to massive army construction is at 48 - so close!
3) 25 years of promoting clergy seems to be ever-so-slowly paying off, as my POPs are up 11.1% literacy (from a starting 5.5%), and RPs are up to 2.75 (from a starting 1.16).

I then get a piece of very bad news on the last day of the year, though, as one of my generals dies:

A general is worth a whopping 4 points on military score (and it's not like I'd been spamming them, this moves me from 3 leaders to 2!), this hurts a LOT.

However, I forge ahead, on January 1st, 1864 my infamy is down to 4.94, just barely low enough that I can DOW Kalat. I do so, and in a laughable campaign (they have no allies, and their military consists of a total of 3K infantry! I annex Kalat in June 1864

I now have the prestige, but am still 5 points away on the military score, despite my frantic massive building spree - I have the 11th largest army in the world, a navy of 14 ships (12 men of war), and it's still not enough!

by December 7th, 1864, a day which will live in fame forever,
I finally, finally, have enough military score, and I step across the altar:

Let's walk through the effects, shall we?

1) I move from 68th in the world to 15th, overnight!

2) My RP have moved from 2.75 to 6.20!

3) I good chunk of the above is because as a "secondary power" (if I remember correctly, this means I am rank 9-16), I get a 2 RP bump.

4) My small steadily accrued bank balance of 30K was vaporized in my military spending spree - I am now about 10K in debt. However, all of the debt consists of a loan from the Bank of Persia, I'm basically borrowing it from the savings my own POPs have been accruing over the decades. Generally I find in this game, unlike EU3, you want to run close to a zero surplus - instead of letting your government stash run up, you let your POPs have it, which makes them happy, and they can lend it back to you when/if you need it - like now.

5) Westernization has wisely left untouched the winged lion icon! Soar and roar!

NEXT STEPS

Now that I'm Westernized, I can build factories. Or at least Persians can.
However, the AI is notoriously bad at building factories (by December 9th, they have chosen to start a "luxury clothes" factory (boo!) in a relatively lightly populated province - booh!). I feel that at this early and fragile stage, I can't afford that luxury. However, sadly, my Conservative ruling party, which has something like 60% support, believes in 'Interventionism'. I decide that the times demand stronger measures, even if the people don't. As an absolute monarch, I can change ruling parties when I wish (it's good to be king), and I appoint the 'reactionary' party, as they are the only party which has 'State Capitalism').

By the way, the fact that I'm appointing a party with only about 10% popular support seems to matter not....

I order the construction of two factories - a 'cement' factory in the central heavily populated province of 'Tabriz' (which also produces coal - I don't think producing coal in a province whose factory consumes coal helps, but it certainly won't hurt), and a 'fabric' factory (which consumes cotton) in my cotton-producing capital of Teheran.

I then sit back and wait a bit, and get two surprises:

First, in October 1865, Russia DOWs the Ottomans - go go go! Once again, I am going to sit on the sidelines, as I have no CB, and my infamy is still something like 23.

To my surprise, Russia has somehow managed to ally itself with China, who ask me for military access, which I grant - for some reason, I find this humorous - the idea of chinese soldiers marching across the middle east to attack Turkey.

Second, in March 1866, I finish Experimental Railorad - yes! so what if it's 30 years after the leading-edge, it's still great to have.

For my next technology, I decide to take a gamble, and invest in a tier-2 (my first of the game) technology, and a cultural one to boot - Ideological Thought. The net effect of Idelogical thought is to significantly increase your pluraility, and hence your research - if you're going to do it, the earlier the better - I decide to take the plunge.

The last thing to report is that that same month I get a mixed surprise - I turn to my nations 'projects', and see.....

The good news is, the country has embarked on a railroad-building spree.

The slightly-less good news is, I had forgotten that with 'State Capitalism', even though I can order the construction of new factories, this doesn't prevent capitalists from building them as well. As I had no capitalists a mere 18 months ago, I thought it would take a long time for them to get started, but as you can see, they're on quite the building frenzy - I may switch ruling partes back to the (more popular) Conservatives in a bit....

THE ROAD TO WESTERNIZATION - LESSONS LEARNED

To recap, I westernized in December 1864 - could this have been done earlier? Let's look at each of the 3 "legs" of Westernization....

1) Technology. that was ready in December 1863, and I think that was about as fast as anyone could do it - with one exception (the must-have "Freedom of Trade"), every technology I researched was on this path, I used my national focus on clergy throughout, and I took every research-aiding western influence I could get.

2) Prestige. That was ready in June 1864, and could have been done years earlier, either by being more careful with alliances (I lost 10 prestige by not honozing one), or by doing more 'Humiliating' and less 'Conquering'.

3) Military. This was the gating factor, not ready until December 1864, and that was only acheived by spending a lot of money on troops and ships. In hindsight, this would have been a lot easier with a less feeble officer corps - I only had 2-3 throughout, just didn't have the leadership points for more, and each officer is worth 4 points. What I would recommend to others is that 5 years or so before your Westernization target, you raise Military spending to 100%, but not to recruit more troops, but rather to recruit more leaders. Just having, say, 6 leaders instead of 2 would have made my military score high enough years earlier.

Let my pain be your gain

I think this is a good place to end for now - the next post will be more of a 'where are we now' post, as we are approaching with 1/3 mark.

**badger_ken** · 27-09-2010 07:10

Chapter 4: 1/3 of the way though

Other than Russia re-taking Georgia from the Ottoman Empire, nothing much happens until 1869, at which point we're 1/3 of the way through the game - I thought y'all might enjoy an overview.

THE WORLD

First, the world map:

It really hasn't changed that much. Probably the two biggest changes are that (1) Mexico has held on to all of its original lands north of the Rio Grande, including Texas, and (2) Brazil has been devouring Bolivia.

The Great Power rankings:

A few things to note:

1) Russia has an awesome industrial base, nearly twice that of Great Britain!

2) Despite never bashing Mexico, and not having Texas, the US is comfortably in 3rd place.

3) 8th place has been changing frequently between the Ottoman Empire, Spain, and now Portugal. Note how puny Portugal's industry is - their industrial score is 1/4 that of Persia!

The Middle East

Here's a map of the Middle East:

1) The biggest change is that Spain has conquered Hedjaz (the east coast of the red sea)

2) The Two Siciliies, of all people, have conquered Jordan.

3) Russia has grabbed a swath of south central asia.

4) the UK has munched its way up to Afghanistan

5) Persia has munched its way up to Afghanistan

PERSIA - THE DIPLOMATIC SIUTATION

Here's the "Show Wars" tab for Persia:

1) There are no wars to show! The entire world is at peace.

2) My infamy is still at 19, sigh.

3) Persia has the 14th-ranked industry in the world (and growing rapidly - I'm really just limited by people), and the #9 army. If it weren't for the infamy penalty box, I could really grow.

THE POLITICAL SITUATION

1) The Upper House is still solidly Conservative

2) Despite that, I have a 'Reactionary' ruling party, mainly so I could choose 'State Capitalism', which I have used mainly to build railroads like crazy.

3) The people at large are extremely Conservative.

4) Note how little support there is for any sort of reform, or for military action - both "Anti Military" and "Pacifism" are more popular then "Jingoism".

THE WORKFORCE

1) Note that there is still no voting -- oddly, the people don't seem to mind this.

2) The people are 87% Conservative - wow.

3) again see the lack of enthusiasm for reform, or for war.

4) Note the profession you don't see here - Craftsmen - it's under 1% of the populace, despite my single national focus being spent encouraging it. My factories (and I think something like 10 of them have been built now) are almost all profitable, despite having very few workers in them. Must .... get .... more .... people.

RESEARCH

Literacy is up to 12.3% (from 5.5% at game start), RPs are up to 6.24 (from 1.15 at game start), and population is up to 2.33M (from 1.49M at game start) - about 1/2 of this has come from western Afghanistan, which is, surprisingly, quite heavily populated - I think around 400K people.

THE BUDGET/ECONOMY

People are happy and getting their needs satisfied, though I'm taxing them as much I can.

My biggest need by far is for iron, with grain a distant second.

**Eams** · 28-09-2010 15:39

Originally Posted by badger_ken

5) Westernization has wisely left untouched the winged lion icon! Soar and roar!

This clearly is the best news of all. Westernization wouldn't have been worth it if it had robbed you of your lion. Though you should endeavour to find out if its sword is replaced by a hammer and sickle if you go communist.

**Tanzhang (譚張)** · 28-09-2010 16:16

Great to see a Persian AAR! They were one of my favourites in Ricky.
Just one question, why are you so worried about your BB if you're in Russia's Sphere of Influence?

**Alfredian** · 28-09-2010 17:04

I might have got the wrong end of the stick, but would it be worth having your national focus on capitalists in under-developed provinces (rather than craftsmen). If the factories are profitable then won't pops drift there on their own?

**badger_ken** · 28-09-2010 18:58

Thanks for the input folks! I must say, this new color scheme is a lot easier on the eyes.

Originally Posted by Eams

...Westernization wouldn't have been worth it if it had robbed you of your lion. ....

I couldn't agree more! Maybe if it wore a top hat, though, that could be stylin'

Originally Posted by Tanzhang (譚張)

Great to see a Persian AAR! They were one of my favourites in Ricky.
Just one question, why are you so worried about your BB if you're in Russia's Sphere of Influence?

Good point! Several reasons, I guess:
1) I'm scarred by my Mexico experience!
2) Countries regularly drift out of SOI - if I drift out my BB will suddenly become a big issue.
3) What if somebody DOWs me and Russia doesn't answer the call? I'm assuming that BB might influence this decision on their part.
4) I dream a dream ... of becoming a Great Power! In that case, Russia won't protect me anymore.

Originally Posted by Alfredian

I might have got the wrong end of the stick, but would it be worth having your national focus on capitalists in under-developed provinces (rather than craftsmen). If the factories are profitable then won't pops drift there on their own?

I don't think so - I've got capitalists coming out of my ears, while my factories are usually at 25% craftsmen or less.

**Dewirix** · 28-09-2010 20:59

Have the Ottomans westernised (or do they start out westernised)?

If not, it's time to show them a thing or two about the power of progress.

I found getting craftsmen to be really difficult until I started getting crazy migration figures. Then unemployment replaced it as the major problem.

Thread: The Winged Lion attempts to soar and roar - a Persian AAR

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The Winged Lion attempts to soar and roar - a Persian AAR

Chapter 1: the initial situation, and opening moves

Chapter 2: Afghan adventures

Chapter 3: "a day which will live in fame forever"

Chapter 4: 1/3 of the way though

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