Isle Ayiti in ane 1836
[size=+3]Kreyòlaar[/size]
an learning AAR haïtienne
Country: Ayiti
Build: Victoria 2 vanilla 1.02
Start: 1836
Goals: Survive, keep Ispayola united, dominate the Karayib, & great power status
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Isle Ayiti in ane 1836
[size=+3]Kreyòlaar[/size]
an learning AAR haïtienne
Country: Ayiti
Build: Victoria 2 vanilla 1.02
Start: 1836
Goals: Survive, keep Ispayola united, dominate the Karayib, & great power status
[size=+2]Entwodiksyon[/size]
Land of the Virgin & Voodoo, self-emancipation & crushing poverty, Haiti has had some hard knocks. We're here to game the system to see if we can't help them do a little — or much — better for themselves.
The mechanics for success in Victoria were pretty straightforward: save up to convert your largest POPs into capitalists, institute a democratic government with suffrage for the wealthy to empower a liberal regime, max out all socialist reforms but never fund them, & your country — provided it was in the Americas & out of debt — would quickly be awash with immigrants. Build up your factories & slowly expand the franchise as clerks begin to outnumber farmers & laborers. Victoria: Revolutions sped things up even more since a minimally-taxed capitalist would begin building the factories & rail for you without having to fight Prussia for the trickle of machine parts coming out of Great Britain. Trade tech with, say, Portugal & China for their colonies, which you then sell to Spain, Britain & France for their Caribbean holdings.
I'm sure the mechanics of Victoria II will be a little different, but the current plan is pretty much to just jump right in and start pushing buttons to see how things work. Feel free to stop me if there are any huge mistakes to make early on.
Land of the Virgin & Voodoo, self-emancipation & crushing poverty, Haiti has had some hard knocks. We're here to game the system to see if we can't help them do a little — or much — better for themselves.
The mechanics for success in Victoria were pretty straightforward: save up to convert your largest POPs into capitalists, institute a democratic government with suffrage for the wealthy to empower a liberal regime, max out all socialist reforms but never fund them, & your country — provided it was in the Americas & out of debt — would quickly be awash with immigrants. Build up your factories & slowly expand the franchise as clerks begin to outnumber farmers & laborers. Victoria: Revolutions sped things up even more since a minimally-taxed capitalist would begin building the factories & rail for you without having to fight Prussia for the trickle of machine parts coming out of Great Britain. Trade tech with, say, Portugal & China for their colonies, which you then sell to Spain, Britain & France for their Caribbean holdings.
I'm sure the mechanics of Victoria II will be a little different, but the current plan is pretty much to just jump right in and start pushing buttons to see how things work. Feel free to stop me if there are any huge mistakes to make early on.
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[size=+2]An Note on Lang[/size]
Kulture Ayitien's an blend Franse, Afriken, & Ameriken influenses. This appear in the narratives in th'use of an Anglisized krayol. Th'accent probably's na as strong as it's in mon HOI3 miniAAR, but there'll be some. In partikular, I'll be using krayol names por nasyons & historikal figures.
Not to fear. It's flavor, so the gameplay bits & commentary will look more like this.
Kulture Ayitien's an blend Franse, Afriken, & Ameriken influenses. This appear in the narratives in th'use of an Anglisized krayol. Th'accent probably's na as strong as it's in mon HOI3 miniAAR, but there'll be some. In partikular, I'll be using krayol names por nasyons & historikal figures.
Not to fear. It's flavor, so the gameplay bits & commentary will look more like this.
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[size=+2]Istwa[/size]
Before arrival Kristof Kolon, isle Ayiti (or Ispayola) divide among 5 Taino caciquat: Charagwa & Marièn in west, Magwana in centre, & Magu & Iguay in est. Natives first massacre Panyòl, but Panyòl returne. 2 hurricanes hitte Kolon's new vil, but Kolon again returne. His brothèr then builde Sen Domeng.
Kolon & Panyòl enslave Taino & rule por many anes. Many Taino die & esklavs Afrik come. The Panyòl ignore west isle, because there have na gold. Franse come & begine an petite war between their pirateurs & Panyòl. In ane 1697, trete Ryswik divide Ispayola between Frans & Espayn.
Many, many Franse come por plantasyons tabak & indigo & sukre & kafe. Ayiti franse have as many persons as Kanada franse, but tres unjust. In ane 1789, Revolusyon Franse leade to chaos. Whites ayisyen wante independèns or union with Anglè. Esklavs feare this & revolte: in ane 1791 on 14 August, an houngan name Boukman Dutty calle for revolusyon at Bois Caïman. In an month, 100k esklavs holde Nord. Invasyons Franse & Angle & Panyòl faile, defeate by esklav Tousen Louvèti. 1795, he holde all isle includant Sen Domeng. Napoleon beau-frère Leclerc tricke & arreste Louvèti, but invasyon Franse again faile. In ane 1804 on 1 January, Janjak Desalin declare Ayiti endepandans, although Sen Domeng become endepandan as well before Anglè returne it t'Espayn in 1809.
An homme assassine Desalin. Nord d'Ayiti become an kingdaume under Anri Kristòf, Sud an repiblik under Aleksann Petyon & Jan Pyè Bwaye. Anri Kristòf lose army support & commite suicidè. Prezidan Bwaye reunitè Ispayola by reconquerant Sen Domeng in ane 1821. Bwaye then freeè esklavs Panyòl. However, Charles X, king d'Frans, threatene an new invasyon & demande ₣150 milyon. Ayiti then have only an little kafe & tabak, have na any sukre or plantasyons. This payments threaten t'bankrupt isle.
Before arrival Kristof Kolon, isle Ayiti (or Ispayola) divide among 5 Taino caciquat: Charagwa & Marièn in west, Magwana in centre, & Magu & Iguay in est. Natives first massacre Panyòl, but Panyòl returne. 2 hurricanes hitte Kolon's new vil, but Kolon again returne. His brothèr then builde Sen Domeng.
Kolon & Panyòl enslave Taino & rule por many anes. Many Taino die & esklavs Afrik come. The Panyòl ignore west isle, because there have na gold. Franse come & begine an petite war between their pirateurs & Panyòl. In ane 1697, trete Ryswik divide Ispayola between Frans & Espayn.
Many, many Franse come por plantasyons tabak & indigo & sukre & kafe. Ayiti franse have as many persons as Kanada franse, but tres unjust. In ane 1789, Revolusyon Franse leade to chaos. Whites ayisyen wante independèns or union with Anglè. Esklavs feare this & revolte: in ane 1791 on 14 August, an houngan name Boukman Dutty calle for revolusyon at Bois Caïman. In an month, 100k esklavs holde Nord. Invasyons Franse & Angle & Panyòl faile, defeate by esklav Tousen Louvèti. 1795, he holde all isle includant Sen Domeng. Napoleon beau-frère Leclerc tricke & arreste Louvèti, but invasyon Franse again faile. In ane 1804 on 1 January, Janjak Desalin declare Ayiti endepandans, although Sen Domeng become endepandan as well before Anglè returne it t'Espayn in 1809.
An homme assassine Desalin. Nord d'Ayiti become an kingdaume under Anri Kristòf, Sud an repiblik under Aleksann Petyon & Jan Pyè Bwaye. Anri Kristòf lose army support & commite suicidè. Prezidan Bwaye reunitè Ispayola by reconquerant Sen Domeng in ane 1821. Bwaye then freeè esklavs Panyòl. However, Charles X, king d'Frans, threatene an new invasyon & demande ₣150 milyon. Ayiti then have only an little kafe & tabak, have na any sukre or plantasyons. This payments threaten t'bankrupt isle.
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Its like faux-kreyòl ayisyen or something. Its perfectly understandable to me (1st language English, competent in French). Proper haitian creole has far fewer english words so where the english and french differ a lot he seems to have put the english so people can still read it.
[size=+2]Prèmye Enpresyones[/size]
So, finally get some time among the western barbarians & could find a store with a copy of Vicky II on sale (although since 'rea' is the Swedish for 'sale,' I'm not sure what they were trying to say by calling it a 'slut-rea.')
Install, patch, load it up, &
Love the idea of Vicky being part of Ringworld, although — unlike HOI3 — it's a somewhat more sensible period for the poles to be off limits. (It does revive my wish that p'dox could find some corner of the budget for some end sequences, though.)
Pretty dust motes. The fact they remind me of the wrenching Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓) is probably a personal thing but poignant, considering how the original Victorian era wound itself up.
Miss the period music from Ricky, — some of the music here is nice but more appropriate for the EU time frame — but Andreas Waldetoft is apparently a pretty nice guy, so good on 'im.
Finished loading & chuckle at Bob Lee leading his men against some pith-helmetted British imperials (not thinking through til later the unpleasant reason he'd actually be in that situation...) Click past the tutorial option (they should just link to the AAR forum from that button, mho) &
Love the ingame map. Even has the period distinction you see between Turkey-in-Europe and Turkey-in-Asia (& of course there are perfectly good reasons not to call the OE Turkey in a modern game.) All the blank space on the boxed copies' insert maps is weak, though. Did they really not know where Mexico was going to be? [Of course, as is so often true, a forumite already stepped up.
this place.]
Curious whether the labels are going to disappear for shrinking countries and reappear for expanding ones. That'd be fun.
Only one scenario atm [1]: mildly annoying situation for Dixie fanboys. I suppose the modders are already working on it, though.
Eurocentric text, but it was a Eurocentric age. Not sure all the language works ("across the briny foam," "maestro,") but always fun to hear Continentals gush about nationalism and (BrE) liberalism. I would really like VIP-style country descriptions in that box when you select your nation, though. Is this moddable?
Clean interface. Can select countries by clicking around on the map or scrolling up and down the country list on the left [2]. Depending on what you're curious about, you can rank the countries by prestige [3], industry [4], or military [5] rankings.
And here's Haiti [7]. Suck it, Ecuador.
Click & all that national stuff pops in on the right: overall ranking [6], the government & society types [8], and more detail about the prestige, industry, and military scores and ranks [9]. On the plus side, we're already civilized, which provides any number of benefits, chief among them regular infantry & much faster tech advancement. Being in the Americas in and of itself used to boost immigration (I assume that still holds.) Finally, the Haitian has no natural predators aside from oppressed Dominican laborers, so we'll have time to experiment and make mistakes without being immediately eaten.
On the minus side, everything else. There are ticked-off Dominican laborers, so we'll need to keep paying an army despite having no rivals. We're still small, almost everyone's a farmer, & the president's a dick. (The irony being that p'dox games generally provide the player with a role indistinguishable from an immortal dictator and then penalize their in-game counterparts heavily.) We need the immigrants if we're ever going to turn Haiti into a great power, so the whole Tropico vibe is going to have to go soon (and preferably before the inevitable counterreaction to Europe's stodgy monarchies encourages people to sell their farms & get moving.)
So, finally get some time among the western barbarians & could find a store with a copy of Vicky II on sale (although since 'rea' is the Swedish for 'sale,' I'm not sure what they were trying to say by calling it a 'slut-rea.')
Install, patch, load it up, &
Pretty dust motes. The fact they remind me of the wrenching Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓) is probably a personal thing but poignant, considering how the original Victorian era wound itself up.
Miss the period music from Ricky, — some of the music here is nice but more appropriate for the EU time frame — but Andreas Waldetoft is apparently a pretty nice guy, so good on 'im.
Finished loading & chuckle at Bob Lee leading his men against some pith-helmetted British imperials (not thinking through til later the unpleasant reason he'd actually be in that situation...) Click past the tutorial option (they should just link to the AAR forum from that button, mho) &
Love the ingame map. Even has the period distinction you see between Turkey-in-Europe and Turkey-in-Asia (& of course there are perfectly good reasons not to call the OE Turkey in a modern game.) All the blank space on the boxed copies' insert maps is weak, though. Did they really not know where Mexico was going to be? [Of course, as is so often true, a forumite already stepped up.
Curious whether the labels are going to disappear for shrinking countries and reappear for expanding ones. That'd be fun.
Only one scenario atm [1]: mildly annoying situation for Dixie fanboys. I suppose the modders are already working on it, though.
Eurocentric text, but it was a Eurocentric age. Not sure all the language works ("across the briny foam," "maestro,") but always fun to hear Continentals gush about nationalism and (BrE) liberalism. I would really like VIP-style country descriptions in that box when you select your nation, though. Is this moddable?
Clean interface. Can select countries by clicking around on the map or scrolling up and down the country list on the left [2]. Depending on what you're curious about, you can rank the countries by prestige [3], industry [4], or military [5] rankings.
And here's Haiti [7]. Suck it, Ecuador.
Click & all that national stuff pops in on the right: overall ranking [6], the government & society types [8], and more detail about the prestige, industry, and military scores and ranks [9]. On the plus side, we're already civilized, which provides any number of benefits, chief among them regular infantry & much faster tech advancement. Being in the Americas in and of itself used to boost immigration (I assume that still holds.) Finally, the Haitian has no natural predators aside from oppressed Dominican laborers, so we'll have time to experiment and make mistakes without being immediately eaten.
On the minus side, everything else. There are ticked-off Dominican laborers, so we'll need to keep paying an army despite having no rivals. We're still small, almost everyone's a farmer, & the president's a dick. (The irony being that p'dox games generally provide the player with a role indistinguishable from an immortal dictator and then penalize their in-game counterparts heavily.) We need the immigrants if we're ever going to turn Haiti into a great power, so the whole Tropico vibe is going to have to go soon (and preferably before the inevitable counterreaction to Europe's stodgy monarchies encourages people to sell their farms & get moving.)
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Interesting start. So you'll basically be recording your first experiences with Vicky II? I like that. I wish I had done that - my first game was with Afghanistan, and it was definitely worth an AAR story. 
[size=+2]Ispayola[/size]
Loading screens finish & here we are:
The Kayarib, circa 1836.
P'dox games always default to the topographical maps, even though every single player always immediately clicks over to the political overlay. I guess they want you to see the work they put into that overlay at least once. Whatever. First order of business: poke through the map overlays before settling back on the political map mode.
The infrastructure map now doubles as the economic one. That's an improvement. Haiti's not producing sugar any more, but is giving Cuba a run for its money in the cigar business instead: Every district is producing tobacco. It's not quite a California gold mine, but it's close enough. Nice cash crop, & 9'll get you ten that the game doesn't model the way it leeches rich soil.
Again, clean user-friendly interface along the top. A bit cluttered, but as good as it gets for managing everything you have going on in this game.
National focus [II] is new. Seems to provide a few bonuses. Expanding the number of capitalists definitely goes to the top of the list at the moment.
Speaking of which, in the first Victoria, Haiti's first priorities would've been saving up to buy the necessary inputs to build clipper transports & promoting the largest farmer POP into capitalists. The new way is less successful but easier and more realistic. POPs seem to naturally improve based on their ability to meet their current needs, so a successful farmer becomes a craftsman, a successful craftsman becomes a clerk, a successful clerk becomes a cappy, & a successful cappy makes himself (& some other people) very rich. The pain is that our trickle of Cappy POPs won't actually be very useful until they number 10k or so. . .
The awesome part is that the game automatically deducts the costs & autopurchases the supplies from the world market without player micromanagement. Seems like an easy way to guarantee bankruptcy, especially with new players and tiny states, but we'll probably do alright thanks to our voodoo death stick trade.
We have a military strength of 1, which — since we're civilized — should mean we have one infantry regiment under arms. However, the military overview [III] reads 3 units out of a possible 3. Turns out that the game has adopted the battalion-level units from HOI and instead of 10,000 men we have 9,000. Oh, and they're irregulars. Add a merchantman full of British rifles and German drill instructors to the "to do" list.
As far as I can tell, the annoying display hanging out on its own in the middle of the screen [IV] toggles what construction displays on the map's provinces. I'm not sure why this couldn't've been addressed in the ESC button menu's "Game Options," but regardless, it's an annoying thing to have suspended in the middle of the screen and it quickly gets toggled closed.
The parade of flags in the lower right [V] turns out to be a new way of displaying diplomatic messages. It's nice not to have as many pop-ups, but I toggle the parade off and pop the old display back open [VI] so I can actually see what's going on. I hope Vicky II doesn't repeat HoI3's mistake and fail to save these messages somewhere in the game folder or save file. It bulks up the files, but helps a lot when you're writing an AAR.
Wonder if it might've been possible to make that look like diplomatic letters now and later in the game, after the advent of telegraphy, diplomatic cables but this is probably easier on the eyes.
One minor failure for this game display is how tiny the zoom buttons are over in the bottom right [VII]. I'm sure it won't matter as much after I know the hotkeys better, but + and - control the speed settings, so it'd be nice if the zoom were a little easier to manage.
Anyway, my mouse finally manages to hit the thing & we see that our military has gone from 1 to 3/3 to ... 9?! Er, ok... I don't mind the brigade system but it'd be nice to pick one idea and stick to it.
Also, Pòtoprens has somehow exchanged places with Jeremi about 100 miles to its west. Mehhh.
This is cool, though.
Looks like the Great Eight are finally gonna get some of their proper respect this time around. Also, players should apparently aim at being in the Sweet Sixteen before the Scramble for Africa starts.
Loading screens finish & here we are:
The Kayarib, circa 1836.
P'dox games always default to the topographical maps, even though every single player always immediately clicks over to the political overlay. I guess they want you to see the work they put into that overlay at least once. Whatever. First order of business: poke through the map overlays before settling back on the political map mode.
The infrastructure map now doubles as the economic one. That's an improvement. Haiti's not producing sugar any more, but is giving Cuba a run for its money in the cigar business instead: Every district is producing tobacco. It's not quite a California gold mine, but it's close enough. Nice cash crop, & 9'll get you ten that the game doesn't model the way it leeches rich soil.
Again, clean user-friendly interface along the top. A bit cluttered, but as good as it gets for managing everything you have going on in this game.
National focus [II] is new. Seems to provide a few bonuses. Expanding the number of capitalists definitely goes to the top of the list at the moment.
Speaking of which, in the first Victoria, Haiti's first priorities would've been saving up to buy the necessary inputs to build clipper transports & promoting the largest farmer POP into capitalists. The new way is less successful but easier and more realistic. POPs seem to naturally improve based on their ability to meet their current needs, so a successful farmer becomes a craftsman, a successful craftsman becomes a clerk, a successful clerk becomes a cappy, & a successful cappy makes himself (& some other people) very rich. The pain is that our trickle of Cappy POPs won't actually be very useful until they number 10k or so. . .
The awesome part is that the game automatically deducts the costs & autopurchases the supplies from the world market without player micromanagement. Seems like an easy way to guarantee bankruptcy, especially with new players and tiny states, but we'll probably do alright thanks to our voodoo death stick trade.
We have a military strength of 1, which — since we're civilized — should mean we have one infantry regiment under arms. However, the military overview [III] reads 3 units out of a possible 3. Turns out that the game has adopted the battalion-level units from HOI and instead of 10,000 men we have 9,000. Oh, and they're irregulars. Add a merchantman full of British rifles and German drill instructors to the "to do" list.
As far as I can tell, the annoying display hanging out on its own in the middle of the screen [IV] toggles what construction displays on the map's provinces. I'm not sure why this couldn't've been addressed in the ESC button menu's "Game Options," but regardless, it's an annoying thing to have suspended in the middle of the screen and it quickly gets toggled closed.
The parade of flags in the lower right [V] turns out to be a new way of displaying diplomatic messages. It's nice not to have as many pop-ups, but I toggle the parade off and pop the old display back open [VI] so I can actually see what's going on. I hope Vicky II doesn't repeat HoI3's mistake and fail to save these messages somewhere in the game folder or save file. It bulks up the files, but helps a lot when you're writing an AAR.
Wonder if it might've been possible to make that look like diplomatic letters now and later in the game, after the advent of telegraphy, diplomatic cables but this is probably easier on the eyes.
One minor failure for this game display is how tiny the zoom buttons are over in the bottom right [VII]. I'm sure it won't matter as much after I know the hotkeys better, but + and - control the speed settings, so it'd be nice if the zoom were a little easier to manage.
Anyway, my mouse finally manages to hit the thing & we see that our military has gone from 1 to 3/3 to ... 9?! Er, ok... I don't mind the brigade system but it'd be nice to pick one idea and stick to it.
Also, Pòtoprens has somehow exchanged places with Jeremi about 100 miles to its west. Mehhh.
This is cool, though.
Looks like the Great Eight are finally gonna get some of their proper respect this time around. Also, players should apparently aim at being in the Sweet Sixteen before the Scramble for Africa starts.
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I was for a very brief moment afraid of having the English Kreyole being the text of the AAR for all of its duration.
Ringworld - interesting idea but kind of small and lacking in ambition, although it does lend credence to the hydraulic pressure theory of border expansion - if you press into something hard enough it must eventually displace something on the other side. I think a certain fellow whose name I forget suggested that once.
Anyway, so Haiti. And civilised. I heard it's a distinctly double-edged thing in Vicky2.
Ringworld - interesting idea but kind of small and lacking in ambition, although it does lend credence to the hydraulic pressure theory of border expansion - if you press into something hard enough it must eventually displace something on the other side. I think a certain fellow whose name I forget suggested that once.
Anyway, so Haiti. And civilised. I heard it's a distinctly double-edged thing in Vicky2.
Anyway, my mouse finally manages to hit the thing & we see that our military has gone from 1 to 3/3 to ... 9?! Er, ok... I don't mind the brigade system but it'd be nice to pick one idea and stick to it.
It's a bit confusing, but the 9 means 9000 men - three brigades at 3000 men each, results in 9k men total. The number displayed below is useful for keeping below supply limits, so that you don't suffer attrition.
And the ledger in the top right corner not only lists construction but also all your armies, HoI-style. Granted, when playing Haiti, keeping track of all your mighty forces is not such a monumental task, but as a GP, the ledger can be useful.
Other than that: I will be watching this! Seeing what a newcomer can or can't do with Haiti is going to be interesting!
@WelshDude
Thank'y kindly.
@Voss
Was just in Sweden & bored nearly to tears. Since I came back, people've been telling me I should've gone over to Gdansk. Is it really that much more fun?
@Quacky
Exactly.
@M. Keiper
You can always do something very short & simple, but if that's not worth the trouble, I'm still curious. 1st, why Afghanistan? and 2nd, how did it go?
@RGB
Kind of you to stop by. Are there really advantages to being an unciv in V2?
@GulMacet
Oh, I figured that out, and it's not too confusing. But using divisions for the military score, brigades for the unit count, & thousands of men for the sprite just seemed a bit... disorderly.
Thank'y kindly.
@Voss
Was just in Sweden & bored nearly to tears. Since I came back, people've been telling me I should've gone over to Gdansk. Is it really that much more fun?
@Quacky
Exactly.
@M. Keiper
You can always do something very short & simple, but if that's not worth the trouble, I'm still curious. 1st, why Afghanistan? and 2nd, how did it go?
@RGB
Kind of you to stop by. Are there really advantages to being an unciv in V2?
@GulMacet
Oh, I figured that out, and it's not too confusing. But using divisions for the military score, brigades for the unit count, & thousands of men for the sprite just seemed a bit... disorderly.
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Not that I can see, to be honest, but it does lend a certain focus to the game. Once you civilise, you are probably powerful enough to take out all your neighbours.
But people keep telling me that unciv is /easier/ every time I express admiration for their achievements. So...maybe someone else can explain it better.
The military score doesn't use divisions (the game has no such thing, you just happen to have a starting army of three brigades - if they were regular Infantry instead of irregulars, you would have a much higher score), it uses the total amount of people in soldier pops, your military tech level and your Navy's ships and naval tech levels.
Just as a note, if you want to hit GP status you'll have to conquer a state off someone else. Denmark is usually the weakest power in the region that would give you a second state, although Spain provides the most profitable state to conquer in terms of population and income. Both will take a strong naval investment. Alternatively, you can take a state off one of the Central or South American nations or, if you're feeling REALLY ambitious, the CSA when they declare independence from the US. The latter has obvious and high risks.
Also, on the unciv topic, a lot of the uncivs have disproportionately high populations and get a a lot of prestige when they civilize. Both make their lives far easier. People also usually play them differently, focusing on research techs to start as the majority of uncivs are not in immediate danger. Trying to focus on research techs exclusively at game start as, say, Bavaria or Austria will get you murdered. Fast.
Also, on the unciv topic, a lot of the uncivs have disproportionately high populations and get a a lot of prestige when they civilize. Both make their lives far easier. People also usually play them differently, focusing on research techs to start as the majority of uncivs are not in immediate danger. Trying to focus on research techs exclusively at game start as, say, Bavaria or Austria will get you murdered. Fast.
[size=+2]Pòtoprens[/size]
Click.
Our beautiful capital.
Sure, it's more beautiful from about here than up close, but that's only temporary.
The provinces are apparently grouped into regions [1]. Here's where you set your "national focus" [2], so I guess it's really more appropriate to call them "regional foci." Next to them you've got the admins and aristocracy.
Administrators are going to act as tax collectors & policemen, I suppose. Certainly Haiti needs more of them at the moment, but I wonder how quickly you can put the brakes on once they start to exceed their usefulness. Most of the scroll-overs reveal a Swedish fondness for bureaucracy, but in most of the world bureaucracy has a rather well-deserved reputation for causing at least as many problems as it solves. Maybe if the bureaucrats're getting all of their needs met, they'll promote quickly enough to solve the problem?
Aristocracy is (probably) more straightforward: in V1, they got money from — and helped get more money out of — RGOs and so are pretty great for a rural country like Haiti.
#4) Like the new RGO set up. Looks like it should make China much more manageable.
Some new forms of civic unrest [5]. Interesting, but I'm not sure I usually think of citizen guards as bad things.
Displaying who has claims on a province [6] is a nice touch, although I don't see how the Dominican Republic can have claims on the eastern half of my island inasmuch as it doesn't and never shall exist. Good for keeping track of potential revolters, though.
Wait, though. Ireland and Scotland are playable but not Wales?
Click.
Our beautiful capital.
Sure, it's more beautiful from about here than up close, but that's only temporary.
The provinces are apparently grouped into regions [1]. Here's where you set your "national focus" [2], so I guess it's really more appropriate to call them "regional foci." Next to them you've got the admins and aristocracy.
Administrators are going to act as tax collectors & policemen, I suppose. Certainly Haiti needs more of them at the moment, but I wonder how quickly you can put the brakes on once they start to exceed their usefulness. Most of the scroll-overs reveal a Swedish fondness for bureaucracy, but in most of the world bureaucracy has a rather well-deserved reputation for causing at least as many problems as it solves. Maybe if the bureaucrats're getting all of their needs met, they'll promote quickly enough to solve the problem?
Aristocracy is (probably) more straightforward: in V1, they got money from — and helped get more money out of — RGOs and so are pretty great for a rural country like Haiti.
It is a little odd thinking about who they would really be here, though.
There's a great AAR you've probably already noticed and should certainly read through (over here) called The Star of New Orleans. Awesome two-birds-with-one-stone-coup-by-the-British-Foreign-Office premise. One of the major topics is race in the French colonies.
Short version is the Blancs (whites) and passer pour Blancs were on top. Créoles (colonials) didn't have the problems that Spanish criollos did: the principle division in the French Antilles was between the grands blancs, who held the plantations and cushy posts in the administration, and the working-class petits blancs. Noirs (blacks) — especially esclaves (slaves) and marrons (runaways) — were on the bottom. The métis (mixed) fit in at various points between depending on just which kind they were and how obviously it showed.
Divisions like mulâtres (W/B), quarterons (M/W), octavonnes (Q/W), and griffes (M/B) were less important on Haiti than over in Louisiana, though, since many planters established their emancipated mulatto children — the gens de couleur — with estates of their own and sometimes grand ones. One métis revolutionary estimated they owned a third of all slaves in St.-Domingue and then fought a civil war with Tousen Louvèti to maintain the island's plantation system; another bankrolled the French court case that upheld the métis's right to vote in the new Republic and sparked the planters' backlash that led to Boukman Dutty's uprising.
Dessalines's eventual victory saw nearly all the whites (except for the hundred-odd Poles who deserted Napoleon's army to help the Haitians) fled, expelled, or killed. The 1805 Constitution tried to level the races by declaring all the remaining Haitians black (presumably including the Poles,) but the fact of the matter was that the old gens de couleur were much richer, better educated, and better integrated into French society.
So you fight a revolution, get rid of the old racist elite, push through land reform, and. . . end up with a new racist elite.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
(There is a small black elite in the North left over from Kristòf's kingdom — & in fact, President Bwaye's buying them off by letting them plunder the estates of the fleeing whites isn't endearing us to Haití Español — but it's not much. Mostly the first 70-odd years of Haitian independence were a running battle between the mulâtre aristocracy & demogogues acting in the name of the black lower class.)
Anyway, where were we?There's a great AAR you've probably already noticed and should certainly read through (over here) called The Star of New Orleans. Awesome two-birds-with-one-stone-coup-by-the-British-Foreign-Office premise. One of the major topics is race in the French colonies.
Short version is the Blancs (whites) and passer pour Blancs were on top. Créoles (colonials) didn't have the problems that Spanish criollos did: the principle division in the French Antilles was between the grands blancs, who held the plantations and cushy posts in the administration, and the working-class petits blancs. Noirs (blacks) — especially esclaves (slaves) and marrons (runaways) — were on the bottom. The métis (mixed) fit in at various points between depending on just which kind they were and how obviously it showed.
Divisions like mulâtres (W/B), quarterons (M/W), octavonnes (Q/W), and griffes (M/B) were less important on Haiti than over in Louisiana, though, since many planters established their emancipated mulatto children — the gens de couleur — with estates of their own and sometimes grand ones. One métis revolutionary estimated they owned a third of all slaves in St.-Domingue and then fought a civil war with Tousen Louvèti to maintain the island's plantation system; another bankrolled the French court case that upheld the métis's right to vote in the new Republic and sparked the planters' backlash that led to Boukman Dutty's uprising.
Dessalines's eventual victory saw nearly all the whites (except for the hundred-odd Poles who deserted Napoleon's army to help the Haitians) fled, expelled, or killed. The 1805 Constitution tried to level the races by declaring all the remaining Haitians black (presumably including the Poles,) but the fact of the matter was that the old gens de couleur were much richer, better educated, and better integrated into French society.
So you fight a revolution, get rid of the old racist elite, push through land reform, and. . . end up with a new racist elite.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
(There is a small black elite in the North left over from Kristòf's kingdom — & in fact, President Bwaye's buying them off by letting them plunder the estates of the fleeing whites isn't endearing us to Haití Español — but it's not much. Mostly the first 70-odd years of Haitian independence were a running battle between the mulâtre aristocracy & demogogues acting in the name of the black lower class.)
#4) Like the new RGO set up. Looks like it should make China much more manageable.
Some new forms of civic unrest [5]. Interesting, but I'm not sure I usually think of citizen guards as bad things.
Displaying who has claims on a province [6] is a nice touch, although I don't see how the Dominican Republic can have claims on the eastern half of my island inasmuch as it doesn't and never shall exist. Good for keeping track of potential revolters, though.
Wait, though. Ireland and Scotland are playable but not Wales?
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[size=+2]Teknoloji[/size]
Click.
Prestige, schmrestige. It's money makes the world go round.
Back when Haiti was loaded with a 5.0 sugar RGO, the best tech selections were practical steam engine followed by high- & low-pressure steam engines, because they opened up four inventions that sent production skyrocketing until the development of industrial-scale extraction from sugar beets. (Strangely, those inventions seem to have been scrubbed from both games' wikis over at Paradoxian... Were they just a VIP add-on?)
Click.
Prestige, schmrestige. It's money makes the world go round.
Back when Haiti was loaded with a 5.0 sugar RGO, the best tech selections were practical steam engine followed by high- & low-pressure steam engines, because they opened up four inventions that sent production skyrocketing until the development of industrial-scale extraction from sugar beets. (Strangely, those inventions seem to have been scrubbed from both games' wikis over at Paradoxian... Were they just a VIP add-on?)
Side point: There's a perfectly good argument for playing a game as Haiti and modding the sugar plantations back in.
Before Petyon, every colored leader of Haiti had used the fermage as a way of forcing the freedmen back onto the plantations to keep up exports. Although it caused lots of problems in the capital & stored up trouble for a hundred years down the road, Petyon's breaking up of the exporting plantations into sustenance-farming smallholds was probably the best thing for the Haitians at the time.
Still, this game is played by the people in the capital & reversion to anarchy isn't going to move a state up to Great Power status anytime soon. Bwaye made an attempt to reintroduce the fermage and corvée with his Code rural and Haiti having much of anything to export means the game considers he succeeded.
Plus, apart from a little sugar, what little Haiti did export during the period was coffee, not tobacco. (Possibly beneficial: there's more demand for tobacco, but since there's also much more production, in my game it trades £0.7 lower per unit or almost half of coffee's price.) That said, I'll leave it alone and play through with tobacco to see how it goes before mucking around with things.
Back to tech selection: since there isn't any sugar, there's no question the first pick should be freedom of trade. +100% production is something close to +100% income at my tarriff rates. Mechanical production would be a good second choice, but the inventions there don't seem to have any effect on tobacco cultivation, so we'll leave that alone.Before Petyon, every colored leader of Haiti had used the fermage as a way of forcing the freedmen back onto the plantations to keep up exports. Although it caused lots of problems in the capital & stored up trouble for a hundred years down the road, Petyon's breaking up of the exporting plantations into sustenance-farming smallholds was probably the best thing for the Haitians at the time.
Still, this game is played by the people in the capital & reversion to anarchy isn't going to move a state up to Great Power status anytime soon. Bwaye made an attempt to reintroduce the fermage and corvée with his Code rural and Haiti having much of anything to export means the game considers he succeeded.
Plus, apart from a little sugar, what little Haiti did export during the period was coffee, not tobacco. (Possibly beneficial: there's more demand for tobacco, but since there's also much more production, in my game it trades £0.7 lower per unit or almost half of coffee's price.) That said, I'll leave it alone and play through with tobacco to see how it goes before mucking around with things.
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[size=+2]Finans[/size]
Click.
Two odd things about Vicky finances I assume carry over:
Now, I'm not so sure. I certainly need to get the clergy and admins up to their ideal level (looks like 1% and 4%, respectively), but I'm not sure how or whether I should set the brakes on once they reach it.
Like seeing how well the POPs' needs are being met right here.
Fun: loans are now distributed to national banks and the game sensibly pays domestic loans last. Wonder if you can much income off loans to AI states? or if you can actually get drained by your debtors like the French always seemed to be doing?
Click.
Two odd things about Vicky finances I assume carry over:
1st, you should never trust the initial numbers on your finance screen. It takes about a month for the world market to sort its prices out at game start, so you need to keep an eye on it til it settles down.
2nd, leaving aside that it's important to tax your capitalists lightly so they have money to invest in rail, you usually make more money keeping their taxes at zero and then gouging them on their imports than if you charged them directly. Changes some depending on your tax efficiencies, but should work now. Too bad my ruling party insists on a 25% base rate.
In the original Vicky, you typically set your education to 100% come hell or high water and adjusted the crime funding to only either 50 or 0% depending on how much you could afford at the time (Sometimes 100% for brief bursts to clean up crime in captured territories, but once that's done 50% kept everything copacetic on its own.)2nd, leaving aside that it's important to tax your capitalists lightly so they have money to invest in rail, you usually make more money keeping their taxes at zero and then gouging them on their imports than if you charged them directly. Changes some depending on your tax efficiencies, but should work now. Too bad my ruling party insists on a 25% base rate.
Now, I'm not so sure. I certainly need to get the clergy and admins up to their ideal level (looks like 1% and 4%, respectively), but I'm not sure how or whether I should set the brakes on once they reach it.
Like seeing how well the POPs' needs are being met right here.
Fun: loans are now distributed to national banks and the game sensibly pays domestic loans last. Wonder if you can much income off loans to AI states? or if you can actually get drained by your debtors like the French always seemed to be doing?
More fun: no ₣150,000,000 (= £6m IRL, ≈£600k IG) loan being paid off to the French. Huzzah to the Haitian banker POPs! (All two of them.)
My version: having already been recognized as a sovereign state by the UK in 1825, the republic openly defaulted during the July Revolution. An early version of Baptist War leading to a slightly earlier abolition act, Britain then supported the move as a way to weaken France financially and pressure it into restoring its own abolition.
Do wonder if it's possible to mod the debt in, though, without simply auto-bankrupting the state. Maybe throw Haiti into France's sphere of influence and set up some kind of tribute payment so it doesn't overwhelm the budget and disappear. (Same question with Britain's own £20m in payments to its slaveholders. Including the feature in-game would help crimp their style at least through the '40s.)
My version: having already been recognized as a sovereign state by the UK in 1825, the republic openly defaulted during the July Revolution. An early version of Baptist War leading to a slightly earlier abolition act, Britain then supported the move as a way to weaken France financially and pressure it into restoring its own abolition.
Do wonder if it's possible to mod the debt in, though, without simply auto-bankrupting the state. Maybe throw Haiti into France's sphere of influence and set up some kind of tribute payment so it doesn't overwhelm the budget and disappear. (Same question with Britain's own £20m in payments to its slaveholders. Including the feature in-game would help crimp their style at least through the '40s.)