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You can use NFs to attract capitalists and they'll do the rest. Also, due to immigration your literacy will increase rapidly (thanks to all the literate French and Germans who will settle there) - an advantage of being a New World democracy. In all recent games I've played, I've noticed AI Chile industrializing more and faster than most other South American nations, even if it lost wars and territory.
Hey, this is an interesting change of pace AAR!
As to predicting .. I think you'll have to have the world go nuts to break the top 10. Industry is king, and you have the unfortunate limitation of 2 states. So since I've seen you do crazy things and believe in you ... I'm gonna say you finish 10th.
As to predicting .. I think you'll have to have the world go nuts to break the top 10. Industry is king, and you have the unfortunate limitation of 2 states. So since I've seen you do crazy things and believe in you ... I'm gonna say you finish 10th.
1861-1885
Welcome back to another episode in our Swiss experiment! I'm going to split this into two posts - a swiss play-by-play of the next 25 years (1861-1885) in the first part, and then a second post with a state-of-the-world and state-of-the-switzerland recap.
But first, let's check the ol' mailbox - as always, many thanks to all for your inputs, it makes the game a lot more fun!
Thanks, my Crustacean comrade! For what it's worth, I have the same issue as you, in fact EU3 skillz 'bleeding over' into Vic2 has bitten me many a time...
The lifeboat is full, I'm afraid
Almost no country starts with any Craftsmen or Clerks, don't worry about it. They'll come over time. As far as Capis go, count your blessings, in my experience they usually just sit on their hands for the first 50 years anyways. So long as you don't have "Laissez Faire", you're fine. In fact, even if you do have Laissez Faire, you're fine for a long time, as if you build a factory you will find you have to wait for your RGOs to fill up before anyone will work on them.
So, are you playing 'pacifist Chile' or 'expansionist Chile'?
Yes, I got all the populations-boosting techs (and reforms) I could. I am getting some decent immigration from France and Austria (see next post), but nothing to compare to those who hear the siren song of the new world, i'm afraid....
But first, a word for our sponsor...
Our Swiss adventure resumes in 1861. Things go quietly for a few years, in 1864 I get 'machine tools', which lets me build the
Gotthard tunnel. It's little things like this that impress me so much about the Paradox approach. Sure, it's just a little random event, but think of the time and trouble it takes to research hundreds of these and translate them to game terms, and make them powerful enough to be interesting, but not so powerful that they alter game balance. Kudos!
Just because you don't care about them, doesn't mean that they don't care about you....
So there we are, all the way up to 1864, singing kum-ba-ya, plucking daisies, and watching G-rated movies, when reality intrudes:
Uh-oh! I mobilize the reserves, and get some bad news right off the start:
A 60K 'green' stack is strolling my way. Gulp! My entire army, including the just-mobilized 'red' reserves, is less than that, and this is just their first stack. It's looking grim. And, when your country only has two states, you can't afford to ever lose a war....
And then, attrition comes to my rescue. I withdraw to give my troops time to get 'green' (and to let attrition takes its toll), and the 60K invaders split into 3 forces - 10K to occupy one province, 30K to occupy a second, and 20K to sacrifice on the altar of attrition. I let my troops gain ORG as long as I can, until they attack one, which I reinforce:
and win! This crucial battle breaks the back of the attack, as they mistakenly switch from a 'narrow front' advance to a 'wide front' retreat:
(Note all the red and yellow orgs on both sides - these are not easy wins for me, this isn't is easy as it sounds).
However, not-easy though it was, I do indeed push them out of Switzerland. They try a second invasion the next year, I repel that as well, and in November 1865 they white-peace out.
Whew! Fair maid Switzerland keeps her virtue intact!
An Italian twist....
This first attack has me somewhat worried, as in my experience the AI tends to doggedly repeat attacks over and over once it has settled on it. So I'm not sure whether it's good news, or bad news, as in April 1868 Italy forms. Has this changed things? I click on the diplomacy for them, and see....
They have the 16th-ranked army in the world - and a starting relation of -148. This doesn't look good....
There's not much I can do about it, other than shift even more of my research to the 'Army' track, and hope.
Unhand me, you brute!
My fears come true, as the Big Bad Italian wolf DOWs me in November 1870....
And this time I'm facing 77K 'green' invaders, not 60K - though my army is exactly the same size. Woe is me!
They again split in two, but the attrition seems to hardly affect them (sigh, they must have better tech now). I attempt to jump on a single stack, and it turns into a Verdun, consuming all troops on both sides:
I barely prevail in a blood bath. Thankfully, however, I'm in home territory, and so recoup troops and ORG much faster than they do. Again, I gradually push them out of Switzerland, and in February 1872:
The good news, Italy agrees to a White Peace - the Swiss chastity belt stays firmly intact!
The bad news is, my population is getting very anti-military (what? after all they've done for you?), and my max soldier pops have plummeted all the way down to 5! If I ever disband anybody, i'm not getting them back! This keeps me from upgrading to Guards (let alone building a new unit). I increase military spending all the way to 90%, but it only helps a little. Grrr..
Happiness is a warm machine gun
Perhaps the Italians had some intelligence about my research, as the very next month I discover machine guns. Yes! I immediately, as per my house rule, watch this video:
[video=youtube;8fyr0zbaFyE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fyr0zbaFyE#t=0m30s[/video]
It starts 30 seconds in. You're welcome
I said, UNHAND me!
As I feared, the rabid Italian wolf isn't giving up, and in March 1877, it's time for our 3rd go-round:
This time it's 82 that I'm up against - they are getting more and more, while I am staying in-place, due to my pop limits. However, I have ... machine guns! They attack with everything they've got (which turns out to be, gulp, 150K soldiers):
and, thanks to machine guns and an ever-narrowing 'width', are soundly thrashed - note the over 4:1 casualty ratio.
This time, things go slightly differently, as Italy retreats, regroups, and tries again about 6 months later, with the same results.
These two bloodbaths give me a whopping 24 warscore, and in November 1878 I get Italy to agree to Humiliation. Yes!
However, while I've now defended Swiss virtue 3 times in a row, the trend is against me. My army can't get bigger, theirs can. I already have machine guns, once they get the counter (which will admittedly be a while) I've got problems. And my forts are already L4, they can't get that much better. And I'm stuck in a Guard-less (and Armor-less, Airplane-less, etc.) configuration.
So, I switch gears a little...
If you can beat 'em, join 'em
First, in May 1879 the NGF offers an alliance - which I accept. Not very Swiss of me, but I think it's worth it. Second, I haven't bothered to mention it, but I've been a GP through almost all this time, and devoting most of my influence to keeping Germany from forming. I switch gears, leaving that up to Austria, and put 100% of my diplomatic efforts into influencing Italy. This pays off, and in January 1881 Italy enters my SOI. I also ally with them, as insurance in case I lose GP status.
These two measures seem to work, at least in the short term, as things are quiet all the way up to 1886. In the next post, I'll recap the state of the world and of Switzerland.
Stay tuned - should have it up in the next day.
Welcome back to another episode in our Swiss experiment! I'm going to split this into two posts - a swiss play-by-play of the next 25 years (1861-1885) in the first part, and then a second post with a state-of-the-world and state-of-the-switzerland recap.
But first, let's check the ol' mailbox - as always, many thanks to all for your inputs, it makes the game a lot more fun!
Thanks, my Crustacean comrade! For what it's worth, I have the same issue as you, in fact EU3 skillz 'bleeding over' into Vic2 has bitten me many a time...
This looks very interesting, I'm looking forward to following this. I'm a bit sad you you didn't try to go after the ethnically similar territories near Switzerland, and save them from the horrors of war in the future
The lifeboat is full, I'm afraid
Almost no country starts with any Craftsmen or Clerks, don't worry about it. They'll come over time. As far as Capis go, count your blessings
, in my experience they usually just sit on their hands for the first 50 years anyways. So long as you don't have "Laissez Faire", you're fine. In fact, even if you do have Laissez Faire, you're fine for a long time, as if you build a factory you will find you have to wait for your RGOs to fill up before anyone will work on them.So, are you playing 'pacifist Chile' or 'expansionist Chile'?
Yes, I got all the populations-boosting techs (and reforms) I could. I am getting some decent immigration from France and Austria (see next post), but nothing to compare to those who hear the siren song of the new world, i'm afraid....
But first, a word for our sponsor...
Our Swiss adventure resumes in 1861. Things go quietly for a few years, in 1864 I get 'machine tools', which lets me build the
Gotthard tunnel. It's little things like this that impress me so much about the Paradox approach. Sure, it's just a little random event, but think of the time and trouble it takes to research hundreds of these and translate them to game terms, and make them powerful enough to be interesting, but not so powerful that they alter game balance. Kudos!
Just because you don't care about them, doesn't mean that they don't care about you....
So there we are, all the way up to 1864, singing kum-ba-ya, plucking daisies, and watching G-rated movies, when reality intrudes:
Uh-oh! I mobilize the reserves, and get some bad news right off the start:
A 60K 'green' stack is strolling my way. Gulp! My entire army, including the just-mobilized 'red' reserves, is less than that, and this is just their first stack. It's looking grim. And, when your country only has two states, you can't afford to ever lose a war....
And then, attrition comes to my rescue. I withdraw to give my troops time to get 'green' (and to let attrition takes its toll), and the 60K invaders split into 3 forces - 10K to occupy one province, 30K to occupy a second, and 20K to sacrifice on the altar of attrition. I let my troops gain ORG as long as I can, until they attack one, which I reinforce:
and win! This crucial battle breaks the back of the attack, as they mistakenly switch from a 'narrow front' advance to a 'wide front' retreat:
(Note all the red and yellow orgs on both sides - these are not easy wins for me, this isn't is easy as it sounds
).However, not-easy though it was, I do indeed push them out of Switzerland. They try a second invasion the next year, I repel that as well, and in November 1865 they white-peace out.
Whew! Fair maid Switzerland keeps her virtue intact!
An Italian twist....
This first attack has me somewhat worried, as in my experience the AI tends to doggedly repeat attacks over and over once it has settled on it. So I'm not sure whether it's good news, or bad news, as in April 1868 Italy forms. Has this changed things? I click on the diplomacy for them, and see....
They have the 16th-ranked army in the world - and a starting relation of -148
. This doesn't look good....There's not much I can do about it, other than shift even more of my research to the 'Army' track, and hope.
Unhand me, you brute!
My fears come true, as the Big Bad Italian wolf DOWs me in November 1870....
And this time I'm facing 77K 'green' invaders, not 60K - though my army is exactly the same size. Woe is me!
They again split in two, but the attrition seems to hardly affect them (sigh, they must have better tech now). I attempt to jump on a single stack, and it turns into a Verdun, consuming all troops on both sides:
I barely prevail in a blood bath. Thankfully, however, I'm in home territory, and so recoup troops and ORG much faster than they do. Again, I gradually push them out of Switzerland, and in February 1872:
The good news, Italy agrees to a White Peace - the Swiss chastity belt stays firmly intact!
The bad news is, my population is getting very anti-military (what? after all they've done for you?), and my max soldier pops have plummeted all the way down to 5! If I ever disband anybody, i'm not getting them back! This keeps me from upgrading to Guards (let alone building a new unit). I increase military spending all the way to 90%, but it only helps a little. Grrr..
Happiness is a warm machine gun
Perhaps the Italians had some intelligence about my research, as the very next month I discover machine guns. Yes! I immediately, as per my house rule, watch this video:
[video=youtube;8fyr0zbaFyE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fyr0zbaFyE#t=0m30s[/video]
It starts 30 seconds in. You're welcome
I said, UNHAND me!
As I feared, the rabid Italian wolf isn't giving up, and in March 1877, it's time for our 3rd go-round:
This time it's 82 that I'm up against - they are getting more and more, while I am staying in-place, due to my pop limits. However, I have ... machine guns! They attack with everything they've got (which turns out to be, gulp, 150K soldiers):
and, thanks to machine guns and an ever-narrowing 'width', are soundly thrashed - note the over 4:1 casualty ratio.
This time, things go slightly differently, as Italy retreats, regroups, and tries again about 6 months later, with the same results.
These two bloodbaths give me a whopping 24 warscore, and in November 1878 I get Italy to agree to Humiliation. Yes!
However, while I've now defended Swiss virtue 3 times in a row, the trend is against me. My army can't get bigger, theirs can. I already have machine guns, once they get the counter (which will admittedly be a while) I've got problems. And my forts are already L4, they can't get that much better. And I'm stuck in a Guard-less (and Armor-less, Airplane-less, etc.) configuration.
So, I switch gears a little...
If you can beat 'em, join 'em
First, in May 1879 the NGF offers an alliance - which I accept. Not very Swiss of me, but I think it's worth it. Second, I haven't bothered to mention it, but I've been a GP through almost all this time, and devoting most of my influence to keeping Germany from forming. I switch gears, leaving that up to Austria, and put 100% of my diplomatic efforts into influencing Italy. This pays off, and in January 1881 Italy enters my SOI. I also ally with them, as insurance in case I lose GP status.
These two measures seem to work, at least in the short term, as things are quiet all the way up to 1886. In the next post, I'll recap the state of the world and of Switzerland.
Stay tuned - should have it up in the next day.
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So much for pacifism, eh?
Good work on beating back S-P and Italy, despite being such a neutral nation the Swiss have always had a decent military.
Good work on beating back S-P and Italy, despite being such a neutral nation the Swiss have always had a decent military.
Brilliant! While the Italians were wasting their men and their money planning invasions, the Swiss used their money and influence to get the Italians to work for them! You handled the danger expertly (though it meant diverging from your policy of complete isolation)!
Almost no country starts with any Craftsmen or Clerks, don't worry about it. They'll come over time. As far as Capis go, count your blessings
So, are you playing 'pacifist Chile' or 'expansionist Chile'?
Pacifist, and using elections to get state capitalism, but also discrediting Pro Military and Jingoism so I can turn down CBs.
Back to your game, I believe you have a core Germany can't found without, so you may get DOWed.
I'm sorry, your perfectly correct. I saw it in a forum somewhere and never bothered to check it out.
1886
1886 - the halfway point
okeley dokely, we are now exactly halfway through the game - let's take a look and see where things are.
The World
(1) The US defeated the CSA, otherwise not much.
(2) I think that in every game there are some number of what I think Paradox calls 'lucky' nations - basically, ones that attack a lot. And I think the number is '3', if I recall correctly. In this game, the 'lucky 3' seem to be Brazil, Spain, and Russia. Here you see lucky Brazil in action, it's swallowed about 1/2 of bolivia and almost all of chile - maybe some of paraguay too.
(3) Other than the early Prussian move to form the NGF, and 'lucky' Spain, Europe has been very quiet. France, Austria, and the OE have done almost nothing, and the NGF has done nothing since its formation.
(4) The race for Africa has just barely started - I think the UK and France have started nibbling.
(5) Russia just finished annexing Persia (I was hoping for an intervention here by another GP, but no such luck). The yellow bit is 'Spanish Persia'.
And here are the national rankings:
(1) The UK is its typical Godzilla-like self, I haven't seen the 'Age of Colonialism' mod have any impact on this yet.
(2) We're #6! We're #6! To my surprise, this is almost all because of prestige, acquired almost entirely via culture tech - my industry score is still puny - just not enough people.
(3) Neither China nor Japan has westernized. This is my 4th game, and I've never seen either one do it - must just be my luck, I guess.
Switzerland overall
World, schmorld, let's get back to what matters - Switzerland! Here's the top strip:
(1) like I said earlier, #6, almost all because of culture tech - i think that went from too weak in 1.1 to too strong in 1.2
(2) literacy rate and RP are in great shape
(3) That's a reactionary party in power, they've been in power (in a coalition) almost this whole time. Odd, when you see the electoral makeup below. They have 'State Capitalism', too, which I'm finding a very mixed blessing, because I don't really know what types of factory to build
(4) The military spending slider is at 90%, and I'm still just scraping along on the standing army. Reserves are coming along nicely, though.
The Economy
The reactionaries are making me keep taxes higher than I'd like, other than that no worries.
Here's the current factory setup:
I don't know why, but the 'machine parts' (the 2nd factory in East Switzerland) has been in the red steadily - I would have thought they would be in great demand. I'm subsidizing it for now, I think things will change. In West Switzerland, you see cement is a good money-maker - I know others haven't found this to always be the case, but it's always been a winner for me.
The Population
(1) Total population has roughly tripled, the various pop-increasing techs and reforms, and some immigration, have so far well outweighed the emigration to the new world.
(2) Note the 13% French and 1.8% south german - that's the immigration, people are coming in from France (a lot) and Austria (a little).
(3) Only 45% farmers, I think this is by far the lowest I've ever had at this stage of the game.
(4) About halfway through this session, the populace started going socialist like crazy. It's 66% overall, and that breaks down something like 80% for the poor, 70% for middle class, 60% for rich. This is most surprising for the poor, which at the start of the game were something like 96% conservative. I'm not sure what caused/is causing this massive swing - some of it was events, but not that much.
(5) Even though the populace is 66% socialist, and there's only one socialist party, it's only getting 15% of the vote. Thanks to my Mexico AAR I actually understand this (see here),, the socialist party doesn't get a 'free ride', it has to have a compelling platform as well, and the socialist party picked a bad party platform. If a second socialist party starts up with a better platform, it will probably sweep to power quickly.
Politics
(1) As mentioned above, a reactionary ruling party, even though they only have 2.6% of the upper house (but 26% of the lower).
(2) The red tide - this has let me pass social reform after social reform.
(3) As I predicted, as soon as I widened the franchise, that was all she wrote for political reforms, as the lower classes were not liberal at all. I still have this last one left.
(4) It looks like passing reforms like crazy, plus the 'rebel fix' mod, has indeed made rebellions go away. This will probably become a problem once I run out of reforms to pass!
Technology
Army:
I've researched everything up to its max until 1900, except for artillery - since it looks like I'll never have more than 3 artillery units, doesn't seem that important
Commerce:
Still an unappealing tree, but things have gotten to the point that some of their factory-enhancing techs are now worth it.
Culture:
The 'big two' on the left yield mighty prestige and RP bounty.
Industry:
1886 - the halfway point
okeley dokely, we are now exactly halfway through the game - let's take a look and see where things are.
The World
(1) The US defeated the CSA, otherwise not much.
(2) I think that in every game there are some number of what I think Paradox calls 'lucky' nations - basically, ones that attack a lot. And I think the number is '3', if I recall correctly. In this game, the 'lucky 3' seem to be Brazil, Spain, and Russia. Here you see lucky Brazil in action, it's swallowed about 1/2 of bolivia and almost all of chile - maybe some of paraguay too.
(3) Other than the early Prussian move to form the NGF, and 'lucky' Spain, Europe has been very quiet. France, Austria, and the OE have done almost nothing, and the NGF has done nothing since its formation.
(4) The race for Africa has just barely started - I think the UK and France have started nibbling.
(5) Russia just finished annexing Persia (I was hoping for an intervention here by another GP, but no such luck). The yellow bit is 'Spanish Persia'.
And here are the national rankings:
(1) The UK is its typical Godzilla-like self, I haven't seen the 'Age of Colonialism' mod have any impact on this yet.
(2) We're #6! We're #6! To my surprise, this is almost all because of prestige, acquired almost entirely via culture tech - my industry score is still puny - just not enough people.
(3) Neither China nor Japan has westernized. This is my 4th game, and I've never seen either one do it - must just be my luck, I guess.
Switzerland overall
World, schmorld, let's get back to what matters - Switzerland! Here's the top strip:
(1) like I said earlier, #6, almost all because of culture tech - i think that went from too weak in 1.1 to too strong in 1.2
(2) literacy rate and RP are in great shape
(3) That's a reactionary party in power, they've been in power (in a coalition) almost this whole time. Odd, when you see the electoral makeup below. They have 'State Capitalism', too, which I'm finding a very mixed blessing, because I don't really know what types of factory to build
(4) The military spending slider is at 90%, and I'm still just scraping along on the standing army. Reserves are coming along nicely, though.
The Economy
The reactionaries are making me keep taxes higher than I'd like, other than that no worries.
Here's the current factory setup:
I don't know why, but the 'machine parts' (the 2nd factory in East Switzerland) has been in the red steadily - I would have thought they would be in great demand. I'm subsidizing it for now, I think things will change. In West Switzerland, you see cement is a good money-maker - I know others haven't found this to always be the case, but it's always been a winner for me.
The Population
(1) Total population has roughly tripled, the various pop-increasing techs and reforms, and some immigration, have so far well outweighed the emigration to the new world.
(2) Note the 13% French and 1.8% south german - that's the immigration, people are coming in from France (a lot) and Austria (a little).
(3) Only 45% farmers, I think this is by far the lowest I've ever had at this stage of the game.
(4) About halfway through this session, the populace started going socialist like crazy. It's 66% overall, and that breaks down something like 80% for the poor, 70% for middle class, 60% for rich. This is most surprising for the poor, which at the start of the game were something like 96% conservative. I'm not sure what caused/is causing this massive swing - some of it was events, but not that much.
(5) Even though the populace is 66% socialist, and there's only one socialist party, it's only getting 15% of the vote. Thanks to my Mexico AAR I actually understand this (see here),
, the socialist party doesn't get a 'free ride', it has to have a compelling platform as well, and the socialist party picked a bad party platform. If a second socialist party starts up with a better platform, it will probably sweep to power quickly.Politics
(1) As mentioned above, a reactionary ruling party, even though they only have 2.6% of the upper house (but 26% of the lower).
(2) The red tide - this has let me pass social reform after social reform.
(3) As I predicted, as soon as I widened the franchise, that was all she wrote for political reforms, as the lower classes were not liberal at all. I still have this last one left.
(4) It looks like passing reforms like crazy, plus the 'rebel fix' mod, has indeed made rebellions go away. This will probably become a problem once I run out of reforms to pass!
Technology
Army:
I've researched everything up to its max until 1900, except for artillery - since it looks like I'll never have more than 3 artillery units, doesn't seem that important
Commerce:
Still an unappealing tree, but things have gotten to the point that some of their factory-enhancing techs are now worth it.
Culture:
The 'big two' on the left yield mighty prestige and RP bounty.
Industry:
Have you considered building the Suez and Panama canal at all it's more people and prestige and you can do it you only need iron steamers and Columbia ( might be tricky) and Egypt in your sphere to do so and it gives you a coast line.
Good job that tech, skill and your mountains kept you safe. And nice to see you got some inmigration after all. I agree with Thandros, canal building will give you a non-military way to expand
Are you going to go for electricity soon? It has x-rays which give some extra population growth. It also gives electrical lighting with a nice boost to industrial output. Are your RGOs getting full? Hopefully they do soon so you can get some booming industry! Nice to see the Frenchies leaping over the border to your comfy welfare state hehe. Are they assimilating nicely? Hopefully they will and you will get a 2nd NF before the end of the game lol. Speaking of NFs, is yours for craftsman or clerks or something else? Anyway enjoying how this is going and crossing my fingers for a big industrial boom coming soon!
Edit: Oh and well done with Piedmont and Italy! I forgot to congratulate you on that sterling defence as well as turning them into a buddy instead of a rabid local rival.
Edit: Oh and well done with Piedmont and Italy! I forgot to congratulate you on that sterling defence as well as turning them into a buddy instead of a rabid local rival.
Well done on getting to great power, I assume the first ones you did were Philosiphy and Aesthetics? What other factory types would you reccomend, apart from cement. When did the Socialists become such a force in the Upper House?
This has not been at all as boring as we were originally promised. Things keep on happening (reforms, wars, etc). I have a good mind to complain.
Anti-military? Surely all those Frenchmen leaving their lucky warmongering nation for the safe home of Switzerland.
Thanks for the inputs!
Clever idea, but the US wound up grabbing both canals pretty quickly, oh well. I could have done it if i would have thought of it earlier. Although lord knows how I'd defend it...
I do indeed get Electricity in the next session (a bit of a spoiler - it turns out that Switzerland is quite the research machine, I am knocking off technologies like crazy), and it's quite nice.
The RGOs do indeed fill up around 1900 or so - more on the results in the next post
I started the NF on Clergy at the very start (gotta get that literacy up), then switched to Craftsmen for a long time, now am trying Clerks.
thanks for the compliments re Italy - I'm a lover, not a fighter
Re techs - I think the first two were Idealism (the one that gives RP and prestige), and then Romanticism (the one that gives prestige), followed by Army Professionalism and then Experimental Railroad. Remember that Switzerland already had the first row in everything (except for Experimental Railroad).
Re factory types - I'm still learning here. What I think happens is that each good has a "golden age" - some things make a lot of money early then fade, others in the middle, etc. And some are steady throughout. Since cement is needed to make factories, I've found it just about always makes steady money, but others have reported otherwise. Maybe the money-losing cement makers are in the SOI of someone who makes cement more efficiently? Just a guess.
I have found (more on this in the next post) that if you build a factory too early, before there's enough worldwide demand for it (as Switzerland you can produce much more than you consume), it will be a money-loser for a long time until the external demand kicks in - I think that's what happened with the machine parts, for example. The only sure loser seems to be canned food, which never ever makes any money.
Re the Socialists - it's a funny thing. I think some of this has to do with Switzerland only having two states, as I got events that increased the percentage of Socialists by a massive amount (40%, as I recall) for the poor in a given state. Two of those, and voila, you now have 40% socialist poor. But this doesn't account for the middle class, let alone the rich - it was a steady rise, year after year. I don't really understand this dynamic at all yet, Naggy's thread on the topic is still largely over my head at this point
I think you'll like the next post better then - I aim to please
yet another thing I don't really understand, honestly, is what makes the POPs anti-military, let alone pacifist. Can someone put it in words of one syllable for me?
Ahhh, Paradox games - who needs IQ tests, just sit candidates in front of Vic2 and see how they do.
Good job that tech, skill and your mountains kept you safe. And nice to see you got some inmigration after all. I agree with Thandros, canal building will give you a non-military way to expand
Clever idea, but the US wound up grabbing both canals pretty quickly, oh well. I could have done it if i would have thought of it earlier
. Although lord knows how I'd defend it...I do indeed get Electricity in the next session (a bit of a spoiler - it turns out that Switzerland is quite the research machine, I am knocking off technologies like crazy), and it's quite nice.
The RGOs do indeed fill up around 1900 or so - more on the results in the next post
I started the NF on Clergy at the very start (gotta get that literacy up), then switched to Craftsmen for a long time, now am trying Clerks.
thanks for the compliments re Italy - I'm a lover, not a fighter
Re techs - I think the first two were Idealism (the one that gives RP and prestige), and then Romanticism (the one that gives prestige), followed by Army Professionalism and then Experimental Railroad. Remember that Switzerland already had the first row in everything (except for Experimental Railroad).
Re factory types - I'm still learning here. What I think happens is that each good has a "golden age" - some things make a lot of money early then fade, others in the middle, etc. And some are steady throughout. Since cement is needed to make factories, I've found it just about always makes steady money, but others have reported otherwise. Maybe the money-losing cement makers are in the SOI of someone who makes cement more efficiently? Just a guess.
I have found (more on this in the next post) that if you build a factory too early, before there's enough worldwide demand for it (as Switzerland you can produce much more than you consume), it will be a money-loser for a long time until the external demand kicks in - I think that's what happened with the machine parts, for example. The only sure loser seems to be canned food, which never ever makes any money.
Re the Socialists - it's a funny thing. I think some of this has to do with Switzerland only having two states, as I got events that increased the percentage of Socialists by a massive amount (40%, as I recall) for the poor in a given state. Two of those, and voila, you now have 40% socialist poor. But this doesn't account for the middle class, let alone the rich - it was a steady rise, year after year. I don't really understand this dynamic at all yet, Naggy's thread on the topic is still largely over my head at this point
I think you'll like the next post better then - I aim to please
yet another thing I don't really understand, honestly, is what makes the POPs anti-military, let alone pacifist. Can someone put it in words of one syllable for me?
Ahhh, Paradox games - who needs IQ tests, just sit candidates in front of Vic2 and see how they do
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yet another thing I don't really understand, honestly, is what makes the POPs anti-military, let alone pacifist. Can someone put it in words of one syllable for me?
After what I've digged out from naggy's posts, it seems that military issues can be influenced by your military strength compared to your neighbours. Basically, if you're a regional superpower with every regiment being larger than your neighbours total mobilized forces put together you're people will be very pro-military. On the other hand if you are, say, Switzerland surrounded by three great powers all of which have larger armies and high military score than you, well then your people will prefer peaceful approaches and draw towards anti-military and pacifism.