Legacy of Metternich - Austrian AAR

[Alexspeed]

Chapter 14 allready, how fast that goes, thank you

I am alittlebit dissapointed to see this germany rather than an white austria, but gamewise it makes sense i guess, congratulations neverthless

The next war... hm, not sure, maybe denmark to conquer the northern beaches?
Or the netherlands? or Italy?

[Mico94]

with a uber-germany like that there is only 1 thing left to do: WC, or at least WW1

[Forgiven]

Yes, maintaining Sphere of some 20 nations is really time consuming even if the smaller ones rarely get outside attention. (And Prussia was dangerously close to reclaiming great power spot too). Tempting to change tag to say, Lubeck or something else, I'm not that fond of the german color and flags really, not that the Habsburg flag was much better, but white is nice...
But that might cause some weird things I suppose, modding just the white back might be easier, hm, uniforms would stay though, bleh, partial solution at best.

One of those countries is target of my second war, but not the next I'm afraid...

Mico94: Aye, I suppose, I'm planning on challenging the United Kingdom at least, but I need to prepare a bit better first, I have practically no navy or bases for them at this time afterall...
...is world conquest actually possible? Just cutting pieces out of Russia would take more peace deals than I can imagine...

[scholar]

I thought you said you were going to give it a rest for a while, or at the very least stay that nice white color!

But anyways, good update!

[Zhai]

Great story!

I enjoyed it so far One thing is missing, Luxemburg. Not just pretty up the map, it is also another German state you could get. I believe that if you gain influence in Luxemburg, you will annex it. perhaps I am mistaken? Anyway, excellent story.

Looking forward for another update!

[Forgiven]

scholar: Thank you, indeed my writing inspiration is rather sporatic and unpredictable, I though it might be done for a while, but perhaps not, might even get another one done now...

Zhai: Luxemburg? Hmm, I forgot it existed really , I'll have to see in future, I certainly wasn't aware of any 'annexation via influence' but I haven't tried so I don't know if it's possible, will have to try just to find out if it's possible now...

[Forgiven]

Chapter Fifteen




To improve internal order, or at least to divert attention from the lack of it, external threath was required once again. Ever since that first failed expedition to find source of Nile, Franz Joseph had shown ever increasing interest with the ancient Egyptian culture. And with every other great nation acquiring colonies around the world, clearly the prestige of Empire required acquisition of one for ourselves too. (3rd of October 1897)



Thus the Kaiserliche Marine transported XXI. Armee consisting of 2 cavalry regiments, 2 dragoon regiments and 6 infantry regiments under Theodor zu Hohenlohe to Sidi Barrani from where they marched towards Alexandria. (17th of October 1897)



After the Alexandria Garrison had been swept aside, the XXI. proceeded to the Egyptian capital of Cairo, to engage what little forces Eqyptians had managed to get together. (6th of November 1897)



Battle of Cairo was easily won and the remainder of Egyptian force was taken prisoner in Giza and sent to work on a canal project between Mediterrean and Red Sea, under the amazing engineers that had completed Kiel Canal in no time at all earlier this year. (17th of November 1897)



Gottlieb Daimler had also finally finished plans for an automobile which would be practical enough to be produced in large numbers, and indeed, many others would come to use the basic concept over the world. (17th of February 1898)



Two additinal Armee's, the XX. and XXII. had also arrived to Egypt, to help with subjucation of the local population, yet enforcing Imperial rule in occupied areas was slow work. (3rd of March 1898)



Indeed, after the hot summer, locals found enough energy to rebel against the invaders, which caused additional delays to efforts to 'rearrange ownership' in Egypt. (2nd of September 1898)



But despite the minor obstacles, the first colony of Austro-German Empire was formed eventually, and the road was open for futher colonial expansion. (14th of March 1899)



The new 'German Egypt' covered most of the lenght of Nile until it entered Ethiopian territory atleast, and would allow for extensive excavations, and by the agreement, also in the territory that was left under local goverment. (14th of March 1899)



With over hundred thousand prisoners of war and other rebellious rabble working under Imperial supervision, the Suez canal was finished almost as fast as Kiel canal had been. (15th of March 1899)

[Alexspeed]

Great Update, thanks!

German Egypt, i wouldnt have thought of this one.
I would love to see a world map if you could arrange that

How is your gamespeed? Are you allready noticing slowdowns or something?

[Forgiven]

World map, hmm, let's see, about a year into future one is available...



I'm not all that sure of gamespeed to be honest, I played all the way to 1907 by 17th of October (my memories of the events are already getting bit fuzzy, luckily I took about 1000 screenshots on the way), but I don't think I had (major) slowdowns yet.

[Baltasar]

About 1900 and there is not much colonization being done around the world. The German Empire might be able to expand even without shedding blood.

PS.: There is still that awkward red stain between you and Russia

[Nikolai]

Ugly new borders, but that can easily be fixed with a protectorate CB.

[Forgiven]

Indeed, colonization only began around 1890 (?) by France and Uk, I'm not sure when USA started on pacific islands thou, and Spanish joined up late, maybe few years ago. And AI is not very fast with it either. Hmm, is Mosambique larger than it begins as too?

Ugly borders? Ah well, such is life, I really only wanted Suez (since amazingly, no one else had built that before 1889 either...), not sure I'll have time to clean up borders just for border's sake. Besides, they are quite likely to get only uglier in future I'm afraid. And as to that red stain, I see lot bigger ones around too, surely we should start with the big red blobs not small ones...

[Alfredian]

Austria-Germany has become a giant and the victories have stopped being pyrrhic. If I was an Egpytian I would have been happier fighting the old Austria.

[Forgiven]

Indeed, I suppose incorporating the Prussian officer corps helped on military side
Egyptians were rather outmatched, but then, let's see how the next great power we'll fight does, this was more of an vacation than a real war.

[Alexspeed]

The Contest has reached its end now, and is closed for further chapters!

You allready posted more than 10 chapters, actually you posted the most chapters of all contestants! Congratulations!

Thank you very much for your participation!

The final Overview Posting is here!

The judging is in progress, watch the contest thread
for the announcment of the scores as soon as i get them.

[Forgiven]

Chapter Sixteen




As fledling naval power, we had to institute some drastic measures to catch up with the other nations, indeed, domestic ship production was mostly undeveloped and the goverment had adopted position that troop transporting could still be done with old fashioned clippers, afterall, we still produced those, and had large overproduction of sail cloth, so it was only logical to support our industries in this manner.



In the spirit of exploration, we also sent an expedition to freeze to death in the north.



Back in 1885 the Japanese emperor had been trying to bring western technologies and some new ideals into Japan, but that had been an error in judgement, as the citizens had finally revolted, bringing end to the long long Imperial rule. The new Japan was hardly most democratic either, but it maintained pretense of electing some officials. Franz Joseph however, sent a different kind of delegation, this one only concerned with trade, priviledged trade for sure, but even so, and promise of not to corrupt the Japanese culture, and indeed, to prevent other western civilizations from doing that either. Chinese on the other hand, were in sight of most of the great powers, as they competed who could bribe favored nation status for themselves. Denmark had also been included into the Imperial co prosperity sphere earlier.



After the success of first Olympic games, the wealth of new Imperium convinced the Olympic committee to arrange the second games within the Empire, instead of the historical Greece. And, of course, with favorable judges and surroundings, the games went very well indeed.



The year of 1901 also brought futher advances, on the new focal point of German research, navy, had developed a cruiser, and the nutcases who thought they were birds had actually managed to stay in the air.



Besides that, our intellectual advances were regognized by the Swedish, we are not really sure what that peace prize business was about, but we figured it probably meant we should be more agressive or be seen as weak. But hey, we couped the prestige, shame had to let the winners keep the actual money, but, oh well, it wasn't all that much was it?



During the 1902 we finally succesfully expanded our colony in Egypt westwards, not the most luxurious places in the world these new acquisations, but good enough for railroads and stepping stone for futher expansion.



In October, we had an incident on the border with Kingdom of Netherlands...



Situation grew worse fast, indeed, our coffee imports greatly suffered, and the Emperor, who had become greatly fond of Javan coffee, demanded that if things could not be sorted out immideatly, he'd have no option but to secure the source of coffee himself. And indeed, since that statement only made things worse, about month after the incident, the Empire was once again in war.

Strenght of Kaiserliche Marine at the start of hostilities;
1 cruiser (and 16 more under production or planned)
18 ironclads
11 steamer transports
67 clipper transports

Army was now formed by:
I. to XI. Armees of 2 ragoon regiments, 6 artillery regiments, 4 guard regiments and 2 infantry regiments.
IX. and VIII. Armees being exception and having twice the ragoons and no artillery.
XX. to XXV. Armees were 'colonial' as in stationed in Egypt, and indeed, of lighter composition, mainly cavalry, ragoons and infantry, usually of only 15000 men.
Total strenght of the army was 186 standing regiments and conscription would allow raising of 560 more.

The dutch navy, while larger, consisted mostly of frigates, likewise, their army was quite a bit smaller, but they could trust in support of their Belgian allies, still, one only had to look at the map to see this could hardly be a 'fair fight' ?

[GulMacet]

"Costs 131 war score to demand in a peace deal" There is something quite wrong with this...

Also, congratulations for achieving all this with my home land! Long live Greater Austria!

[Juan_de_Marco]

Good job with Austria.
I didn't manage to continue my game, my enthousiasm is gone due to slowdown of the game.

[Forgiven]

GulMacet; indeed, 131 did sound like a bit much, but I figured it could be done, I didn't even know the war score goes down once you occupy provinces, I just assumed that reaching '100%' would make it acceptable regardless... And yes, Austria is a nice place, even if it's gotten bit smaller nowdays, I was bit suprised with the snow in July though...

Juan_de_Marco; ah, shame, how far did you get? I think I may be reaching a point where UK is getting insane amounts of brigades, which might slow things down, then again, assuming I go to war against them, I'll have insane number or regiments as well via mobilization, so slow might not be a problem, but we'll see.

[Juan_de_Marco]

I think I managed to about 1904, my game was a lot slower paced than yours: it does pay off to be more aggressive against Prussia in the early days.
In all my 1.2 games so far, the amount of brigades that are fielded by a) Britain b) France and c) China are ridiculous. They shanghai every available soldier pop, including all African Minor or Indian minorities into the army. The maintenance of the standing army should be so huge as to -by way of economics- force all nations into going for a drafted army, which historically happened. The assimilation rate is still too strong - although the one pro is that it does make Ottoman Empire and Austria playable. I find the 'minority building restrictions' are frequently enacted by the British or French when they have a conservative party in power, which are unhistorical when one takes into account their relative free-er society. Also, far too few European minor states have 'freedom of assembly' or whatever it is called, it severely restricts play as them and is unhistorical. The 1.2 patch still doesn't work correctly with the nationalities, the second or thirdrate citizens can be on-again, off-again granted voting rights, depending on your political party (say the following happens in three election cycles, conservative-residency - liberal-full citizenship - reactionary-limited citizenship). Which is ridiculous: the game suddenly stops counting your non-accepted nationalities for votes. Anyway, a lot of pet peeves; I should be looking at the realism mod by now
Well I still enjoy this AAR! Austria was a great game for me to learn how to manage my armies and warfare. In a game after that with the USA I practised some more on the political aspect. Now I am in a game with the Dutch and finally manage somewhat of that grand-strategy. All in all, I am perfectly sure that I will return to Austria, one day