A Pope's Tale - A Papal States AAR

[HatMan]

Poor Pope. At least he has the popaphant to keep him company

[BootOnFace]

those poor sicilians. they're gonna get Pope-slapped. ;/

[Poh]

Poor Pope. At least he has the popaphant to keep him company

Yeah but it is really unfortunate that he have not gotten anything else besides the Popaphant and popeing land to keep him company

those poor sicilians. they're gonna get Pope-slapped. ;/

It looks like it however they did put up more resistance than expected.

[Poh]

Chapter 6: The Pope is Back in Town! (1879-1880)


War had come and the Popes armies were ready to attack along most of the front as well as from Sicily. The Papal Army mustered 57.000 against 24.000 deluded South Italians, it seemed as if it would be a rather painless affair.



However the Pope had not thought about the Irregulars of Two Sicilies, in the last war they did not make much of a difference however they had been annoying as hell… eh… I mean not very nice.
Two Sicilies mobilized as soon as the declaration of war had been given and they had clearly been ready. Only a couple of days later the enemy army had swelled to 99.000. The Pope lost his breath. This would not be as easy as he had first thought. Two Sicilies launched the first attack on the Papal forces in Foggia, these were quickly reinforced by every Papal soldier possible and they threw the enemy back.



However the enemy launched yet another attack, this time with even bigger numbers. The Papal forces managed to split up and send the army from Two Sicilies retreating in different directions.



The Battles had been a bloody affair for both sides however Two Sicilies had suffered the most. Now the Pope ordered the retreating forces ignored and that the army went into a direct assault on the enemy forces in Aquila. General Guglielmo Chigi did object to these orders and were immediatly fired. He was replaced with Nicola Gironda a young and, as discovered later, more competent general than his predecessor.

The enemy was led by Matteo Anfora during the battle, a cousin to the late Anfora which had been the most popular general in The Papal State during the last wars. This fake Anfora however did not live up to his cousins name, he was both less talented and had a really bad haircut.



The Papal army continued from Aquila towards Rome as some of the retreating forces from the Second Battle of Foggia had begun a siege of the holy city. The enemy was thrown back by a brilliant maneuver of general Caraga who painted Romes surroundings red in the enemies blood.



The army continued to pursue the enemy into the province of Gaeta and it was now time to let the new general Gironda take charge in a battle. It was the first real battle that he commanded however it looked as if he had tried it hundreds of times before. The Enemy was slaughtered, nearly half of their forces did not leave the field of battle again.



Gironda pursued the fleeing enemy and routed them in the Second Battle of Aquila before reinforcements could arrive for the battered enemy. He now set an ambush and waited for the reinforcements.


(right click -> view picture for full size)

Someone had told the enemy about the plan. The army from Two Sicilies knew about the ambush and had taken it into consideration. The Papal forces were attacked while they were still hiding in their cover which led to many casualties. However Gironda showed why he was the best from his academy class. He got his disoriented forces back into rank and launched an attack right towards the middle of the enemy army. This was exactly what was needed, the army of Two Sicilies broke and retreated.

The enemy tried to regroup in Foggia with the Papal army right on its tail. Just a few hours after the retreating army had been reinforced by another battered army the Papal forces fell over them as a hawk over its prey.



The Papal army was now very tired and in a somewhat bad condition. They rested for a couple of months, and then launched an attack on the remaining Two Sicilies forces and defeated them in the Second Battle of Gaeta.



This was to be the final large battle of the war. It was time to mop the enemy up and the Papal forces split up to do this while sieging the enemy controlled areas.

On September 17th 1880 Naples surrendered which forced the navy of Two Sicilies to attempt to breakthrough the blockade which had been established around the port. To the Popes satisfaction the enemy fleet was sunk to the last ship. The tarnished name of the fleet had gained a tiny bit of fame.



October 18th 1880 the Pope fell silent, the war was won, he hugged the big and not so fluffy Popaphant.
Southern Italy was now under Papal rule, and the rest of Italy would have to follow.

During the war, an offer too good to refuse came up, a lottery, the ticket price was quite steep however the first price was a big chunck of Africa called Congo. The Pope wanted to participate in this lottery really badly however he was forced to declare that he was not interested in public.
The eyes of the world was upon him and he could not risk to decrease the worlds opinion of his country.



By some sort of godly intervention the western powers could not agree upon who had the most right to Congo. It ended with Congo being handed to the secondary power the Ottoman Empire.

[Rastar]

Nice work polishing off Two Sicilies!

Do you have any of the other Italian Minors in your SOI?

[BootOnFace]

I don't think he wants to form Italy, because then this wouldn't be Popey enough.

[Alexspeed]

Very nice chapter, and the Popaphant is there again

Gratulations for finally uniting south italy, even the fleet was capable this time
Looking forward to read more!

[Poh]

Nice work polishing off Two Sicilies!

Do you have any of the other Italian Minors in your SOI?

I have not been influencing them however they are beginning to get aligned to me.

I don't think he wants to form Italy, because then this wouldn't be Popey enough.

Exactly it would be very bad if the Pope disappeared as he seemes to have gotten the hang of things. However i might have a little trick up my sleeve for chapter 8, now i just have to get it to work before the contest runs out ^^

Very nice chapter, and the Popaphant is there again

Gratulations for finally uniting south italy, even the fleet was capable this time
Looking forward to read more!

I rather like the Popaphant im actually a little scared because it just keep popping into the text im writing and who know i might even start dreaming about it :P

Chapter 7 is done and will be up after i get a good nights sleep.

[Communitarian!]

It looks like when the world Pope-d the question to the Congo, it decided to go to the Ottoman Empire instead- Perfect! He really needs a Papal Bull to be friends with the Popaphant, though...
I swear, I'm done.

It's not too bad you're dreaming about the Popaphant though - just a sign you're going in the right direction! Looking forward to reading the next update - sweet popaphant dreams!

[Alexspeed]

In the future Monarchs will be afraid of the Popaphants bann... no one wants to get excommunicapopaphanted (i invented a word... yay me )

[Poh]

Chapter 7: A Popes Headache (1880-1886)

Having finally Poped Two Sicilies, the Papal State now spanned most of the Italian Peninsula.



In Europe not much had changed. However France had increased its holdings in Africa by greedily taking parts of Spanish Morocco. The Papal State had ofcourse grown by one state when Two Sicilies was Poped. Campania as the state was called had a working population of about 1,4 million. This meant the Papal State was now nearly eight times larger than it had been in 1836, the Pope was very satisfied by this but it could ofcourse get even better. Soon however he got something else to think about. The people of Campania began talking about pacifism. "Ofcourse they do not appreciate war when they have just been Poped" the Pope said.



"But why should we listen to them, do they not know who governs this country?" the Pope asked the Popaphant. "We are waging wars in the name of god here!" he yelled accidentially spitting on the Popaphants trunk. He quickly took out a holy handkerchief and whipped the trunk clean. Then he padded it and walked back into his study.

In May 1882 an enemy regiment was encountered in one of our colonies. The threat was quickly removed by the skilled soldiers of the Papal Army.



The planning of Operation Papal Fury, an operation meant to launch a surprise attack towards the aggressor in this conflict, was soon put to rest as it was discovered that the dead soldiers were British. "Unfortunate," the Pope thought to himself as he could have used another little war to clear the headaches. The operation name had been rubbish so maybe it was good that the operation had been scrabbed. Operation Godly Fury was the name the Pope wanted to use instead, "Maybe next time then," he thought to himself.

Later in 1883 the Pope got a new headache; the socialists. It started when craftsmen from Campania started a major strike in Rome.



It soon spread to other parts of the country. The conflict escalated when the capitalist in Papal Emilia notified the craftsmen that they had been locked out.



The Pope did not want to take part in this, however he would have to get the situation under control. Having taken over Campania and thereby increased the soldiers available to the army he got a brilliant idea. Recruit a new army to restore the order.



Not many months went by from the time the new army had been establised to rebels for the first time attacked nation wide. The rebels in the Italian part of the Papal State was soon under control.



However the lack of army presence in Madagascar meant that an army first had to be shipped the long way around Africa. After the army landed in Madagascar it quickly reestablished control. The Ampanihy Region to the lesser man known as Southern Madagascar had not had a single rebellion. To show the Popes gratitude the state was granted statehood on the 14th November 1884 a few months after the rebellion.



The Pope wanted to reward the people of his new state and therefore threw a nation wide contest to come up with the best idea to do exactly this. The reward that was selected was not only benifical to Madagascar but to the whole country, a shortcut by building a canal through the Egyptian province of Suez. A grand idea, this was to be the Popes next goal. It was unfortunately soon put on hold as other problems accured.

November 17th 1884 one of the biggest mistakes among the Papal officials happened. The Pope saw how Egypt tried to get back into the Papal States good grace and sent out the order that under no circumstances must they be put under the Papal Sphere. However the Egyptians went on to bribe a high ranking member in the Papal goverment into making a statement that this would happen. The Pope was now forced to either become the mockery of Europe once again or accept this loss in silence and put Eqypt into the Papal Sphere. He chose the last.



April 1886 the factories in the Papal States were mostly giving a good profit. The artillery factory in Campania had been closed as it made too high a deficit and the craftsmen had moved to the three new factories that had been constructed in the state. The wine production in Lazio had been moved to Papal Sicily which was the new heaven for alcohol production. Though the size of Papal Emilia it still supported many factories compared to Romagna which still had not seen true potential.



Construction of a steamer shipyard was also underway as the Pope thought that even though there was an abundance of steamers on the world market a Papal shipyard may be able to make a profit out of the Papal Sphere.

Discoveries made by the research department:

• June 24th 1881 Organic Chemestry.
• September 29th 1882: State and Government
• November 4th 1884: Electricity
• September 13th 1885: Steamers

[Alexspeed]

Allready a new chapter, very good, and a great read it was, thank you!

Operation Papal Fury would have been a nice thing, but it was the right thing to scrap it,
because the UK might be too big to take on, even for the Popaphant

Good to see your Industrialization is in good shape.
Looking forward to more!

[Poh]

Chapter 8: The Popes Ultimatum (1886-1889)

The Industrialisation of the Papal States went on but it was not enough to keep its ranking and soon the Pope had to see his country as the last of the eight great powers. His only comfort was that the secondary powers were still a long way behind.
Dropping out of the great powers was one of the Popes nightmares so he started to think about what could be done about his worsening position.

September 28th 1886 the navy was once again strenghtened by building 11 transportships.




The Popes navy now consisted of three Man'o'War, four Frigates and 14 Clipper Transports. The navy was split into three parts:

• The main taskforce which consisted of the warships and five transports.
• Five independent transports to support the maintask force.
• And the last four transports which were to support the four regiments that was stationed in Madagascar. The route to Madagascar was a long one and during a war the warships were needed to protect Italian part of the Papal States. This was later expanded with one more transport.

On the exact same date Persia was included in the Papal Sphere to supply the Papal factories with more consumers.



The breakdown of the Papal Sphere at this date looked as such:

• Papal States: 5,34 mil.
• Papal Sphere: 13,21 mil.

Papal Sphere:

1. Korea: 3,42 mil.
2. Egypt: 3,42 mil.
3. Sokoto: 2,11 mil.
4. Argentina: 1,42 mil.
5. Persia: 1,29 mil.
6. Peru: 0,97 mil.
7. Chile: 0,58 mil.

Giving a good market to the factories in the Papal State however could get even better, we need to try and take a bigger mar

January 12th 1887 the first social reform in the Papal State was enacted, "We can not call this a paradise if we do not help the poor!" the Pope stated.



Unfortunatly this was not enough to quell the peoples thirst for social reform. They wanted more, a lot more, and they showed this by emigrating from this gods nation on earth. The population was in decline, during three years nearly 100.000 workers emigrated to America. The only positive thing the Pope could hang on to was the increasing amount of socialists in the Papal States, "It must get better, if i can pass some reforms" he thought to himself.

June 29th 1887 the city of Palermo was electrified as the first in the Papal States. "Let there be light," The Pope declared, and there was light. So much light infact that if you stood outside the city you would think the houses along the main road was on fire.



Some months after the first electricity Expressionism was discovered increasing the prestige of the Pope. He now began to plot a very, very secret plan. Not even the Popaphant knew about what was about to happen as the Pope was locked up in his study to finish some documents. However it was all disrupted by a very special christmas present, that the Pope on one hand detested and on the other thought of as quite refreshing. The Ottoman Empire declared war on Egypt with the intention of taking Lebanon. "Egypt must suffer, but it should be by our hand" the Pope declared and accepted the Egyptian call to arms.
It would take two months before the Papal Army arrived in Egypt with the order to atleast achieve status quo. This was due to the soldiers being on christmas leave and the Pope thought very highly of this particular holiday.



The Egyptian Army was non existant so the Papal forces were doing most of the fighting.
The first battles were fought in March. Unfortunately an unknown Egyptian commander took charge even though the Papal army was atleast ten times larger than his own. This heathen commander then led our sons into a meaningless charge. The Pope was furious. Everything that could be kicked was kicked except the Popaphant. Had the Popaphant been alive it would have fled the Papal Palace as fast as its legs could carry it. The Popes eyes were shooting lighting and the words that came from his month were not fit for a Pope, even the tough coal miners would have paled by the language used in that moment.



The next day the Egyptian general was nowhere to be seen, non had seen or heard him leave. It was said in the camp that gods fury had made him disappear. The rest of the Egyptian Army did not disappear however they never left the camp either.
The Papal Army was now the only ones resisting the Ottomans, however they fought with an unseen fury as if they had been possesed.
Even though the Ottomans had more than double the numbers and the Papal forces were a long way from home they defeated the Ottomans in a series of battles.



The enemies main army was now defeated and it was only time before the remaining soldiers had been fought down. During the time it took to clean out the remaining enemy soldiers the Pope once again send a Papal Botanical expedition.



Not two months after the expedition had left Rome, word returned that it had stranded and needed financial help. The Pope, as the kind man he was, send a courier with the needed funds to repair and refit the needing expedition.

It was now time to look for spoils of war. The Pope however did not want any spoils from the Ottomans even though this was a one in a lifetime chance to aquire Cyprus or Albania as the Ottomans were allied with the British. He finished the war as soon as possible and went back into his study to scheme. The Pope knew he had to move fast as Giuseppe Garibaldis Redshirts were fighting in Lucca. The first and most important of the plans had to be carried out immediatly. Messengers were sent to all the Italian countries bringing an ultimatum. The messengers were handpicked among the cardinals and the ultimatum had been written by the Pope himself, no one knew what it contained.



Non of the countries had forsaken their god which meant the Italian Penisula had been united,

The Kingdom of God had been born!

[Poh]

Misc: Popaphant

As a little closing comment here before Alexspeeds Write a Victoria 2 AAR contest ends I thought I would bring a little something my gf made for me today.

Its the one, the only, the Popaphant

[Alexspeed]

Thats awesome, chapter 8 with a custom made event AND a picture of the Popaphant!

Thank you Poh, you really outdid yourself in the finale!

[Alexspeed]

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

Anything posted after this posting will not be taken in account from any judge.
You are also free to continue your AAR in any style and form that you prefer,
and arnt bound by any contest rules any more.

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.

[Negru Voda]

this is how I picture you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEdPOn0HmdQ

[Poh]

Thats awesome, chapter 8 with a custom made event AND a picture of the Popaphant!

Thank you Poh, you really outdid yourself in the finale!

Well what can I say, Kingdom of God has been my favorite nation i EUIII since it was introduced. I really like that Popaphant picture though it could have been more comical ^^

this is how I picture you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEdPOn0HmdQ

Okay thats scary but he does have a nice hat.


Infomation

Dear reader

I have used quite a bit of time to just make the chapters and some form of "ending" before the contest ended. So now that Alexspeeds Write a Victoria 2 AAR contest is over I thought I would tell a little something about my plans for this AAR and the future of it.

1. Post the needed chapters in Alexspeeds contest and get a form of ending. [Done]
2. Mod in two new decisions and edit a third. [Done]
3. Clarify plans. [Doing at the moment]
4. Post world pictures and some text about what has happend.
5. Finish the AAR.

So what do I mean. The first one is what you have been reading up untill now so onwards to the second.

2. Mod in two new decisions and edit a third. [Done]
I have modded in "The Kingdom of God" as you could see from the last picture in chapter 8. This is a modified form Italy decision that is only available for the Papal States. The "allow" is greater power, no war and a great amount of prestige (I need to balance it a bit, but it is 450prestige at the moment). The effect of the event is exactly the same as the Italy event and besides this it add cores on every Italy core. The rest of the country is just like the Papal States regarding flags, political parties and so on.
The second decision I modded was to add a little flavor to my new country as well as due to something a reader posted earlier in the thread, however this will be shown in a future chapter (I think it will be 2-3chapters in the future).
The last decision I have modified is Cavours Diplomacy I simply removed the "allow" part regarding owning three provinces (Milan and two others) from the decision if you are Italy or The Kingdom of God, which means its a free -10infamy if you give up the three provinces to France. I did this because I already have cores on the land so the change made sense to me.

We are also jumping over part three or you can go to the beginning of the post and read it again

4. Post world pictures and some text about what has happend.
So during the contest I forgot all about the world pictures which I think is a shame. I have a picture for every 10 years in the game so I thought I would add a post with the pictures untill now and then post them for every xx36 from now on. Its always interesting to see how the world is evolving atleast I think so.

5. Finish the AAR.
Im having a great time making this AAR however I did make the mistake of playing untill 1886 before I began writing which means I have only played 3 years in the game since October 27th . So the writing has been hard on me. At the same time I have to begin thinking about a university project I have to finish by the end of December.
I will try to keep the amount of text and pictures the same as it has been untill now as I find like it.
So the essens is expect fewer updates but I will finish this or atleast play untill I can not see the fun anymore. However first I have to play a little into the future, I got some wars to start

Sry for all the text it is almost the same as 2/3 of a chapter

[Communitarian!]

Don't be sorry for the text - just like your Popedates (updates + Pope - okay, I'm really reaching now) it's necessary and excellent. The Popaphant is also heartrendingly beautiful; such a majestic creature only goes to show the Popish Perfection you've Prescribed to us. I like to say that you should take real life first -we're patient, and as long as you find the time and fun in giving us the occasional progress report on the Papal States - no, the Kingdom of God and it's ambitions, we'll be more than happy. Good luck on your project! If there's anything you need or you want some encouragement, we're always here! Thanks for everything, Poh. I'll be thinking of this AAR come Mardi Gras. :P

[Alexspeed]

Thx for the information update, very nice, i shall be following and hope you will be able to bring it to the end